Just One Touch
by Lexi.Ever
Summary: What are you supposed to do when you know your own death? And the person who is supposed to kill you is the man you love? Amaya had lived a quiet life in her village, even though they hated her and treated her as an outcast, but when her mother dies she is left alone to fend for herself. Then the Akatsuki discovers her...but are they friend or foe? The cover is of my OC.
1. Chapter 1: Predictions and Descriptions

**A/N: Alright so even though I'm busting my butt with three other stories I really want to start this story before the idea flies out of my head. The picture in the description is of my OC. It will be updated every Monday so I won't fall behind. I hope everyone enjoys it and please review, reviews make me want to write longer chapters and update early, so please, review!**

**Chapter 1: Predictions and Descriptions**

_"I see red clouds..." my mother muttered staring at me. I looked up at her, my childlike eyes wide. She was having a vision. I wondered whose death she was seeing now._

_"Red clouds...and...no...not her, you can't show me her's!" my mother cried troubled. I moved to her side. I had never seen he act this way about a vision before. She normally embraced them._

_"Mother?" I inquired, lightly touching her cheek. Suddenly it was like I was thrown down a hole and then I saw it. I saw what my mother was seeing. It was me, I looked older and there was someone standing over me. Whoever it was had on a long black cloak with white rimmed red clouds on it. My eyes were wide with fear as he moved closer and closer to me. There was a kunai knife glinting in his hand and in one swift motion, he reached down and slit my throat._

_Then I was back in the room with my mother. She was looking at me crying._

_"Mother? What was that?" I asked, my voice shaking. I was terrified of the answer._

_"That was you. I saw your death."_

"Look, it's her, the witch." I sighed. I knew this would happen, every time I went into the village I heard the whispers. I knew what people said about my mother and I, but I still hated hearing it. No, we weren't witches, we were just different.

My whole life my mother had her 'visions'. They were all the same, all of the future, and all of people's deaths, but she could never see her own. She told me that it was her curse. I wouldn't have believed her if I didn't have visions of my own, only mine were of the past. She always told me that I was lucky, I didn't have to see everyone I meet die, but she didn't understand. All it took was a touch, just mine skin brushing against someone elses and I knew things about them. I never saw anything good either, I always saw their biggest regrets, mistakes, you name it, if it scarred someone I could see it.

I guess that was my curse.

Suddenly a little boy stepped into my path. I looked down at him and did my best to try and look friendly. He eyes were large and brown and they were filled with terror as they looked up at me. There were a lot of stories about my mother and I, one of the most popular ones was that we liked to cook up little children and eat them and that was where all the missing children had gone. I could tell this boy had heard the stories.

"You-You're the witch right?" he asked me, stuttering. I frowned.

"No, I'm not a witch," I told him. He looked confused.

"But you see things right?" he asked. Reluctantly I nodded. Thanks to my mother, I couldn't hide my abilities. When she and I would go to the village together she would advertise it, letting everyone know what we could do. It if wasn't for her I'm almost sure that the villagers would have thought we were just two normal women who lived in the forest.

Now my mother was sick and probably wasn't going to last much longer, meaning that soon I was going to be alone. I didn't know if I could do it.

"Witch?" the boy asked, looking at me. I refocused on him.

"I already told you, I'm not a witch," I repeated. He just held out his hand.

"Those boys over there dared me to let you touch me," he asked. I looked behind him, seeing a small group of young boys trying to hide behind a corner. I sighed. I should have known. Oh well, he asked for it. Slowly I reached out and took his hand in mine, waiting for the vision to come.

My vision went black and I felt like I was falling, but then I blinked and I was standing in a room watching a man and woman scream at each other. I spotted the little boy, hiding in a corner, covering his ears. The woman screamed something I didn't catch at the man and he slapped her. She fell to the ground crying and I watched as the man continued to mercilessly beat her, while that poor boy tried to disappear into the wall.

Then I was back in the street. I let go of the boys hand and just stared at him.

"You shouldn't let him do that to your mother," I said quietly. The boys eyes widened and he ran. Ran away from me. Just like everyone else I touched did. I sighed and continued my walk to the store to pick up more medicine for my mother.

Once I had finished all of my errands I headed out of the village and down the path to our home. I quietly opened the door to the house and then closed behind me. My mother was lying down, her eyes were closed and her cheeks were flushed. I could tell that her fever hadn't gone down any. It hurt seeing her like that. She was normally a very beautiful and strong woman, her hair was long and white and her eyes were a beautiful bright blue, but since she had fallen ill, her hair looked lifeless and her eyes had lost their light. She had even lost weight.

I had my mother's hair, but I kept it cut short and uneven. I had my father's eyes though. They were a dark reddish brown.

"Amaya," my mother said, her voice hoarse. I looked over at her.

"Mother?" I asked. I hadn't heard her speak for almost a week now. She had been too weak to even attempt it, so for a moment I felt a flash of hope, maybe she was getting better.

"Do you remember why I named you Amaya?" she asked me. I frowned.

"Of course I do." I hated my name. I hated the reason even more.

"You were so quiet, you didn't even cry when you were born, but you were so beautiful. I named you Amaya because you were like the rain at night. No one heard you cry, but when I would check on you in the morning, your cheeks would be wet from tears. You were the night rain, so that was what I named you," she told me, her voice sounding weak. I grabbed her hand and felt myself fading into the blackness.

I saw a younger version of my mother, her face spattered in blood, the body of a man lying at her feet. There was a knife in her hand and tears were streaming down her face. The man on the ground, he was my father. She dropped the knife and fell to her knees, crying. She'd had a vision of his death and discovered that he was going to be captured and tortured to death, by enemy ninja. She wanted to free him from that pain.

I felt myself return to my mother's side.

"You know better than to do that," my mother said, referring to my holding her hand.

"I don't care," I told her, feeling the tears slip down my cheeks.

"My Amaya, you're still just like the rain at night. So quiet and peaceful. Don't forget..." she said trailing off.

"Don't forget what?" I said desperately. If she was talking I knew she wasn't dead yet.

"Red clouds..." and then she was gone. My mother was gone and I was alone.


	2. Chapter 2: On the Run

**A/N: So chapter two, here we are. So first of all, if you didn't already know, Amaya means 'night rain'. Originally I was going to name her Kasumi which means 'mist', but then I found the name Amaya and I thought it was perfect for this character. To be honest this is actually the first character like Amaya I have ever come up with. Normally my characters aren't as...layered as she is. Anywho, please review and tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 2: On the Run**

As I let my tears fall a heard the sound of a creaking floorboard from behind me. I instantly flipped around, placing my hand on the large dagger I had strapped to my back. I may not have been an official ninja, because the Academy wouldn't accept me when I had applied because they "didn't take witches", but my mother had been a jonin level shinobi and had taught me everything she knew.

The door of my home slammed open, revealing a mob of villagers, there were a variety of weapons among them, letting me know that they weren't here to say their farewells to my mother. I gripped my dagger tighter. They didn't know I had any ninja skills, giving me a slight advantage, but with a large group like this...I didn't think I would be able to manage to take all of them out without getting seriously hurt. They had me trapped.

"What do you want?" I asked them. A man stepped forward. I immediately recognized him as the father of the boy from earlier. The one who beat his wife in front of his son.

"We're sick of you witches living among us, stealing our children!" I felt my anger grow.

"We are not witches! And we are not taking your children!" I snapped. He scoffed.

"Please, like we would believe you," he said, gesturing for a group fo villagers to move forward. I stood and shifted into an offensive stance. I quickly glanced over at my mother's body. I wasn't ging to be able to give her a proper burial. The thought broke my heart, but I needed to live. She wanted me to live. Her last words were to remind me of how I died. She wanted to save me, so I needed to live. I couldn't let these ignorant bastards kill me.

"Get out of my way, or I will move you," I growled. The man ignored me and gestured for the group to try and take me. I would have to fight.

I quickly darted in between the first too, shoving my elbow into the first man's stomach and then slammed the bottom of the hilt of my dagger into another man's side. They both collapsed, groaning. I wasn't surprised. These men were simple villagers, not training ninja, they didn't know how to take pain. I moved on to the next one. I aimed a roundhouse kick at his jaw, needless to say he wasn't prepared in the slightest and my kick sent him into the wall, the impact, shaking my small home. I did my best not to seriously hurt any of them. I didn't want to kill any of them or seriously wound them, I just needed them out of my way.

Finally I was to the wife beater. His eyes were wide. I could tell he was afraid of me, I had managed to take out most of them men he had brought with him without getting a single scratch. Not something he expected from a witch, was it?

"Now move," I snarled. He smirked.

"Do you really think I just brought weak villagers with me? Kai!" he snapped. A man stepped forward, wearing a ninja headband. Crap. He smirked at me and pulled out a kunai knife.

"Bring it on, little girl," he taunted. I moved back into my stance and waited for him to make the first move. He did, darting towards me, kunai at the ready. I dodged easily and swung around to nail him with the hilt of my dagger, but he was too fast, catching it before the blow landed. I had no choice now, I had to use jutsu. I released my dagger and jumped away from him.

He threw it on the ground away from us and waited for me to make a move. I did a couple of quick hand signs, making him eye me in confusion.

"Wind Style: Slicing winds jutsu!" I said. My hair was lifted off my shoulders as the small room with filled with a violent wind. Being unprepared, the ninja didn't have anytime to move and was covered in small cuts from the wind. He managed to jump back before it could do any real damage and snarled at me.

"You didn't tell me she knew jutsu!" he snapped at wife beater.

"We didn't know that she knew how," he said, sounding less confident than before. I ran forward, not giving him any time to recover.

"Water Style: Liquid glue jutsu!" (**A/N: If you can't tell, I'm making these up as I go along. *shrugs***). Opening my mouth, I spit a sticky liquid all around his feet, making it to where he couldn't move. I ran over to my dagger and grabbed it before moving back to him. Grabbing his hair I wrenched his neck back and pressed my dagger to his throat. I glared at the wife beater.

"Leave now, or he dies," I said one last time. The wife beater gave me a furious glare.

"No, you leave, and never come back," he said. I gripped my dagger even tighter. I guess I had no choice. Even if they left now I would still have to leave the village. I wasn't safe here anymore. I looked one last time at my mother. _I'm sorry mother._

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. I sheathed my dagger and moved away from the other ninja.

"Release!" I said, making another hand sign, allowing the ninja to move. I made my way through the rest of the villagers and walked into the forest. I had no food, no water, nothing.

An explosion behind me caught my attention, making me turn. They had set my home on fire. The only home I had ever known. I was truly homeless now. I guess the only thing I could do now was try and find somewhere else to live. I made my way through the trees and the brush, my heart aching. I missed my mother. Even though the entire village had hated me, I had still had her. It felt weird being truly alone.

Suddenly a noise behind me caught my attention. Someone was approaching, fast. I turned, but it was too late. Whoever it was, was right behind me. I tried to move to grab my dagger, but he caught my hand, plunging me into darkness. No, not another vision! Not now! Normally I was so carefully when I was fighting, but even with my long gloves, his fingers were still touching my fingertips.

My vision cleared and I was in a strange village. I saw a younger version of the man who grabbed my hand. I saw him kill his entire family. Everyone, and then his little brother appeared. I watched as he left his little brother, knowing full well that the boy would grow to hate him. In that moment I felt what he felt. It was how I was feeling. He had felt alone.

My vision cleared once more.

"You killed your entire family," I told him. HIs ee widened slightly and then they changed. They went from a dark color to a blood red. I recognized what it was instantly. The sharingan.

"How do you know that?" he asked me. His voice was deep and quiet. I knew I should have been afraid of him, but I knew better. He hadn't wanted to be a killer and kill his family. Deep down, he wasn't really evil.

"I saw it, when you touched me," I told him. He looked like he wa about to say something else, but another man came through the trees. He was tall and looked a lot like a shark. He had the body of another man flung over his shoulder and a cruel smile.

This man, I was afraid of.

"Itachi, who is this?" he asked in a growling voice. The man called Itachi released me, breaking our contact. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I think we should take her to our Leader," he said quietly. The other man looked at me, confused.

"Why? She looks pretty plain to me. Why don't we just kill her?" he asked. I tensed, but Itachi shook his head.

"No," was all he said. The shark man sighed.

"Fine. Girl," he said addressing me.

"Can you walk on your own or do we have to drag you?" he asked.

"I'd rather walk, and my name is Amaya," I told them.

"Night rain? Weird name," the tall man scoffed. I ignored him, but then he turned, making something catch my attention. I had been so focused of their faces that I didn't know what they were wearing. Long black cloaks, with red clouds.


	3. Chapter 3: The Akatsuki

**A/N: Alright chapter three! I want to thank Kiyomi for reviewing, I really appreciate it and because she did, I decided to go a head and post this today until waiting a week, though chapter won't be posted until next monday. I pretty much fell asleep thinking about what I wanted to do for this chapter so I hope everyone enjoys it and please review!**

**Chapter 3: The Akatsuki**

No...these were the people who were going to kill me. I couldn't go with them, there was no way. The tall one stared at me, waiting for me to move. The one called Itachi had already started walking. Maybe if I moved fast and didn't hesitate, I would be able to escape. I had to get away from them, far away. Itachi stopped moving and turned around to look at me, his sharingan activated.

"Don't think about running, we will catch you," he told me. I sighed. Go figure, I was trapped. The shark man smiled at me, revealing a row of sharp pointed teeth.

"That means that the second you try to run, I get to kill you, something that I would take great pleasure in," he said, making my blood run cold. I guess I had no choice. Sighing, I began to follow after Itachi. The shark man stayed behind me, probably making sure that I wasn't going to try and slip away.

"What's sharky's name?" I asked Itachi as we walked. I figured if I was stuck I might as well know who I was stuck with. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

"Kisame," he said simply.

"Hm," I said looking over at him. His beady eyes were watching me closely, making me feel more than a little unnerved. He smiled at me again and I turned back towards Itachi. I thought about what I had seen when I had touched him earlier. He didn't want to kil his entire family, but why did he? I guess that was the trick to my visions, I saw the events, but not what led to them.

"So where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"To the hideout, we need to seal this jinchuriki," Kisame told me, gesturing to the passed out man on his back. I frowned. Seal? Jinchruiki? As in the people who carried the tailed beasts in their bodies? My curiosity getting the better of me and stopped moving and reached out to le my fingers brush Kisame's blue skin. I was just drifting into the darkness when I felt a hand pull my wrist away. My vision cleared, allowing me to see that it was Itachi.

"Don't let her touch you," he said to Kisame. The shark man looked confused.

"Why?" Itachi ignored him and then looked at me.

"You don't want to see," he told me, releasing my wrist. I pulled my hand back and glared at him. He just turned and continued walking again. Kisame looked down at me.

"What was that about?" he asked like we were already friends. I just looked up at him, rolled my eyes, and followed after Itachi.

I wasn't sure how long we continued walking, but in that time I decided to let my mind wander, because they were really the most talkative people around. I thought about mother. I still missed her. She had only been dead for a couple of hours and I had already been forced out of my home and captured by the people who were supposed to kill me. Needless to say, my life had definitely gone downhill since she had left me.

"We're here," Kisame said suddenly, breaking the silence. I looked up from the ground to see that we were in front of a large waterfall that ran into a river. I looked around, trying to find the hideout, but I couldn't see anything anywhere.

"Where is it?" I asked. Kisame chuckled and smiled at me.

"Watch and learn," he told me. I looked back over at Itachi, who had stepped out onto the river. I watched him move towards the waterfall and walk through it. Then I felt someone shove my back. I turned around and glared at Kisame.

"Move," he commanded. I glared at him, but then focused some chakra on my feet and stepped onto the waters surface. I followed after Itachi and walked under the waterfall.

The other side was dark and damp. Every sound, no matter how small was amplified, creating a vast cacophony of noises. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting so I could find Itachi. He was standing in front of a large boulder, watching me closely. The sound of the water was interrupted as Kisame entered the area. His shark like grin was visible in the dark, giving me chills. I moved my gaze back to Itachi and watched as he performed a couple of hand signs and the boulder shifted, revealing a long dark tunnel.

"Come on," Itachi said, his voice echoing in the darkness. I followed him, trying to keep close to him so I wouldn't get lost. I heard Kisame move to follow after me and then I heard the boulder move back into place, sealing us in the darkness. In on quick moment it was like all the breath had left my body and my legs started to shake. I hated the dark.

Unable to keep moving, I was forced to stop as I tried to regain control of my legs. I felt Kisame push me, trying to make me keep moving, but all it did was cause me to fall forward so I was on my hands and knees. My breathing became labored and I felt like the walls were closing in around me. I couldn't see anything, nothing. The darkness was so complete, it felt like it was suffocating me.

"Move girl!" Kisame snapped, nudging me with his foot. Suddenly a light appeared in front of me, walking towards us. I forced my shaking body to stand. I had to lean against the wall for support. I kept my eyes focused on the light, only the light.

"What are you assholes doing out here?" a loud voice said. I ignored it, moving towards the light, only the light...I moved past Itachi and kept going. I had to get to the light or the darkness would take me.

"Who's the bitch," the same voice asked. Finally I was close enough to touch the light. I lifted my hands and felt them brush something...something that felt like...skin? Oh no.

Again I was plunged into darkness and this time, before I could even see anything I felt...pain. Large amounts of pain. It radiated in every part of my body, making me want to scream out in agony. Then the vision cleared and I saw a man, he had violet eyes and slicked back silver hair and he was...he was slicing himself to bits and I could feel every part of it. I watched as he plunged a sharp stick into his chest, feeling the pain in my own chest.

"For Jashin!" he cried in ecstasy. Then the vision was over and I was left gasping. I moved away from the light and the man holding the light.

"You...you killed yourself," I choked out. I tried to run, but then I ran into someone else, my skin touching theirs. Once more the dakrness slammed into me.

I saw a man with dark hair and oddly colored eyes. I saw him slaughter the elders of his village and take their hearts, placing them in his own body. It was horrible to watch and when I had finally returned to the real world I was frozen in shock.

"Multiple hearts..." I muttered, my voice higher than usual. Then I ran, deeper into the tunnel. I had to get away form these men. They were monsters. I saw a light up a head and ran into it. 'It' turned out to be a large room with a couch and some chairs. there was a bookshelf and a couple other things scattered throughout the room. There was a girl in this room. Her blond hair was in a half ponytail and her bangs covered her eyes.

I felt relieved until I noticed she was wearing the same cloak as the others.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice sounding a lot deeper than what I expected. I moved towards her, but then my legs, still shaking from the fear, gave out from under me and I fell forward. The girl stood and moved towards me.

"Didn't you hear me?" she asked. I nodded and looked up at her. She was glaring at me, her one visible sky blue eye bored into me. I tried to answer, but I was panting and I couldn't catch my breath. Before I could speak the girl grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the ground. Sending me into, yet another, vision.

I saw the same girl from before and Itachi and Kisame, alone with an oddly shaped figure. The girl wasn't wearing the cloak, in fact, she was staring at Itachi in awe as he stood before her, outlined in the light of the sun. Then I felt the hatred. It was deep and dark and thick enough that I almost choked on it. She hated Itachi, more than anything.

Then I was back in the real world, unable to breathe. The girl glared at me and then through my body into the wall. My back slammed against the surface and I felt my ribs cracking. I opened my mouth in a soundless scream as I crumpled to the ground. I tried to move, but it hurt to much, then I heard footsteps as another figure walked into the room. This one looked fairly young, with soft red hair and amber colored eyes.

"What did you do, brat?" the red head asked the girl. She scoffed.

"She wouldn't answer my questions," he said, shrugging. The red head walked over to me and knelt down. He held out his hand for me and I reached forward to take it, but then stopped. I didn't want to know his past. I tried to move my hand away, but he reached out and took it anyway. I was enveloped in darkness and this time I saw a little boy, a boy who looked exactly like the red head. He was controlling two puppets, making them come closer, until he moved them to hold him in a cold, lifeless embrace.

I felt his overwhelming sadness and loneliness and then I was thrown back into reality.

"Puppets...puppets were holding you," I breathed. He let go of my hand and stood.

"What is this girl?" he scowled. I forced myself to stood, clutching my side and I moved as quickly as I could out of the room. I saw a door and prayed that it was the way out. I broke through and fell right into someone. I looked up to see another girl, with blue hair and a white flower tucked in a bun. Her hand touched mine and I saw a younger version of her, being held hostage as she watched the two men that she was in love with face off. She watched as the orange haired one impaled himself on the red haired ones knife. I screamed along with her until I was brought back to reality.

She let me go and I fell to the ground. Another figure moved next to her from the shadows I recognized him almost instantly.

"You're...Yahiko...but how, I saw you die," I said. The orange haired man's eyes widened.

"How do you know this?" he asked. I tried to explain, but then the pain became too much and I finally blacked out.


	4. Chapter 4: The Truth and My Lies

**A/N: Ok, here's chapter 4! I hope everyone enjoys! I'm finding that the more I write so this story the more I like Amaya, not that I didn't like her before, it was just that, to me, she was still just a character, now the more I write for her the more I feel like she's a real person even though she's not. It's weird, I know. Oh and again, this chapter is early, I just have been writing for this story constantly and figure, I might as well keep posting.**

**Chapter 4: The Truth and My Lies**

My eyelids fluttered and light filtered into my vision. I sat up and the motion caused me to open my mouth in a soundless scream. My ribs, that girl, that's right, she had tossed me into a wall and broke them. No wonder it hurt to move. I did my best to fight through the pain to get out of the bed. The room I was in was empty and I didn't know how much time I had to get away before someone came in to check on me. Gritting my teeth, I made my way to the door. I reached for the knob, but before I could touch it, it moved and in came...a lollipop?

They must have given me some good drugs.

The man, at least I think it was a man, walked into the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He turned his orange masked face towards me and just stared. I waited for something to happen, anything, but everything was quiet. Maybe this was only a hallucination. I was in a lot of pain and I heard once that pain can make people see things. That must be what was happening. I moved towards the door again only to have his hand shoot up and grab my already bruised neck.

"What do you know?" a deep voice growled. I waited for a vision to take me, but it didn't, then I noticed his hands were gloved, meaning that there was no skin on skin contact. I felt relieved, even though I was still being choked.

"I don't know anything," I said. He squeezed my throat harder.

"The others said you knew about them so how do I know you don't know about me?" he asked.

"Let go of my neck and I'll tell you," I managed to say. Slowly, he released my neck, but didn't move from in front of the door.

"Talk," he commanded. I rubbed my neck and glared at him. I had to be careful what I said. He was wearing the cloak with the red clouds, meaning that this could easily be when I die.

"I see things, when I touch people, it has to be skin to skin or else I don't see anything. It's always something bad that has left scars on the person or has effected the person in a big way. I don't know anything about you because I didn't touch you," I told him. He watched me closely and then moved closer. I tried to back up, but the pain left me rooted to the spot. I could even moved as he grabbed me by the chin and pulled my face even closer. At least it wasn't my neck this time.

"This conversation didn't happen and you will never touch me," he breathed. I nodded, then he was gone, leaving me alone in the room again. What had just happened? Who was that man? I moved towards the door again, trying to leave, but once again it opened before I could even touch the knob...only this time is slammed into my nose.

"Do you think she's awake, hm?" a familiar voice asked.

"Maybe. She's been out for two days, she's bound to wake up sometime soon," another voice said, this one was obviously female. The door closed behind them, revealing me on the ground clutching my now bleeding nose. I looked out at the people who walked into the room. It was the red head and the two girls. I suddenly flashed back to the visions I'd had of the three of them the other day.

"She's up, hm," the blonde said. The red head slapped her on the back of the head.

"We can see that brat," he said. The blond glared at him and then looked back at me. The other girl, the blue haired one, knelt down next to me.

"What is your name?" she asked simply. I looked at her, remembering the vision I had of her past. She didn't seem like a bad person, but that cloak. I couldn't trust anyone wearing those cloaks, not when I knew how I was going to die. I only wished I knew which one it was.

"Amaya," I told her. She held out a hand to help me up. I shook my head and she stood up. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand up through the pain. The red head seemed to notice my clutching my side, because his amber eyes watched me closely before he spoke.

"What wrong with your stomach?" he asked. I opened my mouth to talk, but then I began to cough. It wasn't your normal 'flu' cough either, it was a wet deep cough that resounded throughout my entire chest. I covered my mouth and braced myself by placing a hand on the wall. When the coughing had finally subsided I looked at my hand only to see blood leaking through my fingers.

"Oh my..." the blue haired woman said stepping forward. She looked me over and then turned to the other two.

"You both need to leave so I can undress her," she said. I was confused. I removed my hand from the wall and pointed at the blonde.

"She can stay, she's a girl too," I told her. The blond's blue eyes started blazing.

"I'm a guy!" he snapped. I felt my eyes widen and I couldn't help it, the word just slipped out of my mouth.

"Really?" I asked. Before he could attack me the red head grabbed him under the arms and started pulling him out of the room.

"Come one brat," the red head snarled. The blue haired woman nodded.

"Thank you Sasori," she told him. He only nodded and the left the room, dragging the blonde along with him. I looked back at the blue haired women, feeling myself blush.

"I thought he was a girl," I stated. She nodded.

"That happens sometimes," she told me, she began to gently tug on my clothes, removing them from my body.

"So what's your name?" I asked. I figured that if she was going to undress me I at least had the right to know her name.

"Konan," she told me.

"Pretty," I commented. She only nodded. Once she had finally stripped me, she looked over my stomach and back. My stomach looked fine, but apparently my back had a large bruise on it.

"How did this happen?" she asked tenderly touching it. I flinched, breaking the contact before I could hae a vision. I thought back to when I had been brought here. It had to have been when the blond threw me into the wall. I could tell her that, but I really didn't want to make any enemies and give them more reasons to kill me.

"I...I don't remember," I lied. She looked at me, her amber eyes had a knowing gleam in them. She could tell I was lying, but she didn't push anything.

"Well you've broken a couple of ribs. I'll need to have Kakuzu come in and look at you," she told me. She handed me a towel to wrap myself in so I wouldn't just be sitting here naked.

"Who's that?" I asked. She looked at me coldly.

"Multiple hearts," was all she said. I nodded remembering the day before. She turned to leave the room, but my big mouth stopped her.

"It wasn't your fault you know," I told her. She turned around and looked at me.

"What wasn't?" she asked coldly.

"Yahiko's death, it wasn't your fault," I repeated. She turned away from me, one hand on the doorknob.

"You will have a guard. I apologize for the first one, but he's the only one who isn't currently busy," she said before leaving. I sighed and waited for my guard. It wasn't long before the door opened and in walked the blond.

I knew it, this was how I would die.

He softly closed the door behind him and then just looked at me with his one visible eyes. I had to admit, now that I knew his real gender I saw a lot of masculine features. The cloak hid most of it, but I could tell that he was very muscular. I waited for him to pull out the kunai to kill me, but he didn't move, he just shifted to lean against the door, his eye still trained on me.

"I was the one who did that, yeah?" he asked quietly. I shook my head. I wasn't really sure why I was lying, but I did. He scoffed and walked over to me. I just watched him. He stopped in front of me and turned me around, so that my back was facing him. The way I had the towel wrapped around myself covered everything important, but my back was bare, meaning that he could see the bruise. I felt his hand lightly touch my back and move down to the bruise.

My vision went black and I felt myself falling into the vision. I flipped around, coming back to reality. I felt a little woozy, like I had stood up too fast, but I remained standing.

"Sorry I called you a girl," I said suddenly, breaking the silence. He shrugged.

"That makes us even then," he told me with a smirk. Then the door opened and in walked Konan with, who I'm assuming was Kakuzu. the tall man walked over to me and pushed me onto the bed and flipped me over. I felt like a pancake.

"She'll need to be sedated," he growled.

"I'll get Sasori," I heard Konan say. Then I heard the door shut. I felt Kakuzu lean closer.

"Is there anything I should know about you?" he growled.

"No skin on skin contact or else I'll know more about your past," I warned without thinking. Then I heard the door open again and felt a needle puncture my skin and then, once again, I felt myself slowly fade away.


	5. Chapter 5: Stuck

**A/N: So, for the moment, I'm on a writing spree and just feel like posting everything. I'm not sure how long this will last, but from the way I'm feeling, this is probably going to be the last time I make an unscheduled post for this story. After this I will switch to the Monday update days.**

**Chapter 5: Stuck**

_"Mother, what am I going to do? I don't want to die!" I told her, feeling my eyes fill with tears. She smiled at me and pulled me closer to her._

_"Everyone dies honey, it's unavoidable," she told me. I looked up at her._

_"Of that's true then I won't be able to escape the people covered in red clouds?" I asked her. She brushed my hair out of my face._

_"You will, but dodging death once doesn't mean that you will never die. I just want you to live a full life and in my vision you were still so young," she said sadly._

_"So you still want me to try?" I asked her. She reached out and took my face in both of her hands._

_"Of course honey, I want you to stay far away from anyone wearing red clouds. You will not die young," she told me firmly. I nodded._

_"I understand," I told her. She released my face and grabbed me in a tight hug._

_"I love you sweetheart," she said. I hugged her back._

_"I love you too mother."_

My eyes opened and I sat up, happy that I wasn't feeling any pain this time. I rubbed my head thinking about the dream I had. I had forgotten about that memory. I sighed and sat up, only to realize that I still had no clothes on. Cursing to myself I scanned the room, trying to find my clothes. Finally I spotted them in the corner. I stood slowly, still afraid of the pain I had felt before, but I felt nothing.

I picked up my outfit and quickly put it on. It was just typical grab from my village, but I liked it. It was a short kimono type dress. You put it on like you would put on a robe and I kept it closed by tying it with a navy blue sash and then a pink ribbon that my mother had used to use to tie her hair up. The dress itself was a forest green color with a yellow patterned bird on each side of my chest and then yellow swirls were on every corner of the bottom part. I always wore a turtle neck, navy blue tank top under the top part to hide my cleavage and a navy blue pari of short shorts under the bottom. The green was lined with the same navy blue on my sash and the bottom had slits on the side of my legs that went all up my thighs.

I always wore a pair of navy blue gloves that reached all the way up my arms, but stopped before my shoulder. They didn't have fingers in them, because my hands would slip on my weapons. I really hated that I had to do it, mainly because it made it easier to actually touch someone, but it was either that or mess up in a fight. I also wore thigh length navy blue socks that covered everything that wasn't revealed by the slits in my dress.

I also had a headband. When I was younger I had hoped to replace it by my ninja headband, but since I never became a ninja, I kept it. It was navy blue and in the middle of it was the symbol for our village. It was a pale blue circle with a flower in the middle. I brushed my hair out and put on my shoes. I glanced at the door, thinking about running, but this was their turf, not mine. In other words, they had the home field advantage, so I just sat tight and waited, knowing that one of them was bound to come in at some point.

"Is the little bitch awake yet?" an angry voice said from the hall. I plopped down on the bed I had been laying on before and watched the door handle turn, then in they walked. I felt my entire body tense. It was the man who had self mutilated himself in my vision. His hair was slicked back and silver and his eyes were a violet color. Behind him walked in Konan and Itachi. They all three looked at me and I raised my hand awkwardly.

"Are you feeling any better?" Konan asked me. I nodded. I watched her eyes move to my headband and then back to me.

"You are a civilian?" she asked.

"It's kind of complicated. I haven't been formally trained, but my mother had been a jonin and when our village rejected me, she taught me everything she knew. I'm probably only a chunin level though," I told them shrugging. The silver haired man gave Itachi a dirty look.

"She's not even a ninja and you brought the fucking bitch here?" he asked angrily. Itachi raised a calming hand.

"What do you mean, rejected you?" Konan asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"It was because f your ability," Itachi said in his quiet voice. I pointed at him.

"Bingo. They called my mother and I a witch and shunned us. After she passed, they came after me, which is when I ran into Itachi and Kisame," I informed them. I figured they had to have helped me for a reason. If they had wanted me dead they could have just left me the way I was and waited it out and if they wanted to know anything, I would probably have been left the way I was and then tortured, but they hadn't meaning that maybe, just maybe, if I played my cards right, I could leave.

"Your mother had...abilities like yours?" Konan asked. I nodded.

"She could see people's deaths," I told her. She nodded and then locked her amber gaze with mine.

"What can you see?" she asked, though I was pretty sure she already had her suspicions.

"I can see the past, things that scarred people or changed their lives. I need to have skin to skin contact with that person though and it has to be for at least five seconds. If either one of us move before then, I get pulled out of the vision and I see nothing. After five second, even if someone pulls away, I stay in the vision until it's over," I told her, keeping my eyes locked on her's. She frowned and then nodded towards Itachi.

"I'm going to need you to look into Itachi's eyes," Konan said in a commanding voice. The silver haired man, smiled evilly and I knew I wasn't going to like what was about to happen. I moved my eyes to his and then was thrown into the darkness.

It was like I was entering a vision, only instead of someone elses past, I saw my own. My whole life flew by me, I saw myself as a child being bullied by the other kids, having rocks thrown at me and being beaten by the older, stronger kids. I saw everyone calling me a witch, shunning me. I saw my mother, I saw her die..again. And then I saw the villagers attack and me running. When we reached the part when the man in the mask came in I remembered his threat.

Quickly I closed my mind and then was back in the room with Konan, Itachi, and the silver haired man.

"What did you see?" Konan asked Itachi. The raven haired man kept his eyes on mine when he replied.

"Everything she told us was true," he muttered. The silver haired man groaned.

"Great, that means I can't sacrifice the little bitch. Jashin won't be pleased," he said, glaring at me. He then turned and angrily stomped out of the room.

"Who was that?" I asked, not liking his attitude at all.

"His name is Hidan," Konan told me in her cold voice. I nodded.

"So...can I go now?" I asked. I was getting tired of all the questions.

"No. You now contain information on all of us. That makes you a risk to our organization. Besides, we may be able to use your ability, so no, you are not leaving," Konan informed me. I felt my jaw drop.

"I-I can't be stuck here!" I protested standing up. Konan swung around and before I knew it, there was a kunai at my throat.

"If you try and escape, we will not hesitate to kill you," she said quietly. I glared at her, but didn't say anything else. She removed the kunai from my throat and turned to exit the room.

"Itachi will be your guard until dinner. He will show you where you will be staying," and then she was gone. Leaving me alone with Itachi. The room was silent as I waited awkwardly for him to do something. Finally I got tired of the silence.

"So...are you going to show me around or...what?" I asked. He stared at me a moment and then opened the door. I waited to see if he was going to move, but he didn't, so I just shurgged and walked out into the hall. I heard the door close behind me and turned around, only to be face to face with Itachi. I felt myself blush and turned back around.

"Follow me," he said simply, moving in front of me. I shrugged and followed him through the halls. Unlike the tunnel from before, this one was lined with lights, giving the caves an eerie glow.

"So, did you see...?" I asked him as we walked. I had been wondering that since I had all of those flashbacks of my life after looking in his eyes. I knew the sharingan was powerful, but I didn't know it was able to do that.

"Yes," he answered. I nodded. I had figured as much. I wasn't sure why, but I felt slightly ashamed of my life. For all of those ears, I had let everyone walk all over me and push me around. I didn't want anyone seeing that and knowing about it. It made me look weak. I stopped moved and he turned around to look at me. I looked at him, my eyes hard.

"Don't tell anyone," I said. He just looked at me and then walked towards me. I felt my confidence falter. Crap, why had I done that? Now I've gone and made him mad. I took a step back, but other than that, held my ground. He stopped when he was right in front of me.

"I won't tell as long as you don't tell why I'm here," he said in a low voice. I nodded, remembering the vision I had of his past.

"I won't," I told him, meeting his dark eyes. He nodded and then turned around and continued walking. I let out a gust of air and followed after him.

It wasn't long before he stopped in front of a door. I grabbed the handle and opened it only to see a simple room, similar to the one I had been in before. There was a bed and that was it. I sighed and went to sit on the bed. Itachi just stood in the doorway, watching me.

"You can decorate however you want, I'll be on the other side of the door," he told me before shutting the door behind him, leaving me alone in the room. I looked down at me feet before flopping down on the bed.

I guess I really was stuck.


	6. Chapter 6: No Choice

**A/N: Ok, back on track! Good stuff! So quick little story, I was reading this fanfic in public and when I read I tend to talk to myself a little bit (no I'm not crazy!) and I kind of forgot people were around. I was sitting at this table in a restaurant, waiting for my dad to get there because we were going to have dinner together and I'm sitting there reading while I wait and it gets to this really funny part in the story where Hidan does something stupid (shocker) and I start cracking up and I'm like, "Hidan you dog! I hope she mops your face!" or something like that and when I finally calmed down I look over and the waiter (a really cute guy no less) is standing there staring at me. He had this look on his face like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or run away. I just gave him an awakward hi and then ordered my drink, but I swear, the rest of dinner was so awkward because the waiter kept watching me and waiting for something to happen again, my dad thinks he was flirting too. As if he would flirt with a crazy person! Oh well, crap happens. XD**

**Chapter 6: No Choice**

It only took me five minutes of sitting alone in my room to get bored. Back when I had living with my mother I had done most of the cleaning and ran all of the errands. I was never still and all of this, just sitting quietly crap, was really starting to make me jittery. Unsure of what to do, I knocked on the door. Itachi opened it and gave me his usual blank stare. I had to admit, even without the sharingan activated, he still kind of freaked me out. I think it was that quiet intensity thing he had going on.

"Um...can you give me the tour?" I asked him. He stared at me a moment before nodding. I figured this way I could be able to meet all of the other members and learn who I should stay away from. So far my list consisted of Hidan, Kisame, and Kakuzu, then there was that man in the mask, but I hadn't seen him since he told me to keep my mouth shut. Konan, to be honest, didn't seem all that evil and beside, in my mother's vision I could tell by the shape of the body under the cloak that it wasn't her. The cloaked figure in her vision was bigger.

Itachi I was a little iffy about. From what I had seen in his past he was technically sent here as a spy after killing his entire clan and leaving his brother alive. I didn't think he would kill me unless I posed a threat to him, and I didn't plan to. I wanted to stay on his good side. Deidara...he confused me. He, from what I had seen, seemed a little unhinged and cocky, but then there was another side to him. The side the apologized for hurting me.

The one thing I did know for sure was that if any of them decided to kill me I was screwed. Konan had proved that by catching me off guard when she had put that kunai to my neck. No one I had ever faced had been able to get that close to killing me.

Though them again I had only fought civilians, genin, and one chunin. I'd never fought someone like this group.

"I see she's doing better," a quiet voice said. I looked past Itachi to see the red head I'd seen being held by two puppets. It was strange, his face looked exactly the same as it had in the vision. His brown eyes were staring at me with a look of curiosity. I gave him a little awkward wave.

"I'm Amaya," I told him. He smirked at me.

"Sasori," he told me. I nodded. Something about this guy mae me a little uneasy. Then I remembered that he was the one Konan brought in to sedate me. Great, that meant he was good with chemicals. I was going to have to watch what I ate/drank from now on.

"Danna?" a familiar voice said from the inside of one of the rooms. Sasori's face went from serious to annoyed as a blonde head poked out from the door next to Sasori.

"What do you want brat?" Sasori growled. I cocked my head to the side at their exchange. Deidara didn't seem like the type to really respect a lot of people so I wondered what made him respect Sasori enough to call him danna.

"Leader wants us in his office. I think we have a mission," Deidara told him. Sasori sighed and then trained his brown eyes back on me.

"I'll be seeing you again, Amaya," he said. I shivered. He was definitely going on my list of people to avoid. Itachi just quietly started moving again and I followed. I wondered how many more people were here, were there any other girls other than myself and Konan? I decided to just take the simple path and just ask Itachi.

"Konan is the only woman in the Akatsuki and we have a total of ten members," he informed me. Ten?! You've got to be kidding me. I was going to have such a hard time watching my back. I really hoped that I would be able to meet all of the members soon, because I really needed to know who I was going to need to be extra careful around, not that I was going to let my guard down around any of them.

I had made a promise and I intended to keep it.

"Well, well. **Fresh meat.**" I flipped around, feeling someone breathing on my neck. I locked eyes with the most frightening creature I had ever seen. He looked like he was two different people, pressed together. One side was white and the other was black and surrounding him was a plant like contraption. I felt myself backing away from him until I bumped into Itachi. I looked up at him, but he was watching the strange creature.

"Zetsu, what do you want?" Itachi asked. The golden eyes moved from me to Itachi.

"The Leader wishes to see the girl in his office.** Though I'd much rather just eat her now.**" I shivered, noticing that each halves voice sounded different. The white half seemed a little more easy going while the black half was...well for lack of a better word, dark.

"I will take her there," Itachi told him. The creature called Zetsu shrugged.

"Fine by me. **Just don't keep him waiting**," the two halves said and then they just slowly sunk into the ground and disappeared. I let out a sigh of relief.

"What was he?" I muttered.

"No one knows," Itachi answered. I followed after as he led me through the halls and to a large door. It opened without us even touching the handle, revealing Deidara and Sasori standing in front of the man who looked exactly like Konan's friend, Yahiko. I realized though, that there were small differences. This man was covered in piercings and his eyes...they looked strange, like nothing I had ever seen before.

"Amaya," he greeted. Deidara and Sasori turned around with curious eyes. I bowed politely, not wanting to anger him by showing disrespect.

"Itachi, you may leave now," the leader ordered. Itachi nodded and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone with Sasori, Deidara, and the leader. I went to stand by Deidara, figuring he was the safest person to be around out of the three. The blond gave me a confused glance, but then focused his attention back on the leader.

"Amaya, I have called you in here because after much thought, I have decided to give you a choice. Your ability is very...unique and is something we can use to our advantage, so I'm giving you a choice," he told me. I nodded. I could already see where this was going and I felt my stomach churn at the prospect.

"What is the choice?" I managed to choke out.

"You can either be properly trained and become a member of the Akatsuki, or we kill you," he told me bluntly. I swallowed. I knew it would be something like that. I promised my mother I'd live, so in my mind I had no choice. I was going to have to be a part of the Akatsuki.

"I choose to join," I said, hating myself for it. I noticed Deidara smile and Sasori nodding approvingly. Becoming a member of the Akatsuki might help me avoid death by their hands for the moment, I would just have to follow all of the rules and try not to do anything wrong.

"You realize that if you ever betray us we will not only kill you but make it long, and painful," the leader told me. I nodded. I had figured as much, but I didn't plan on betraying anyone.

"I won't," I told him. He nodded.

"Normally we only work in teams of two, but for your first mission I'm having you accompany Deidara and Sasori. They will assess your abilities and help you train while they hunt the jinchuriki," he informed me. Deidara looked slightly surprised, but I noticed Sasori smiling slightly. I guess that I was lucky to have at least one person that I wasn't completely afraid of, but then on the other hand, Sasori was very hard to read and something about him scared me.

"When will we be leaving?" Sasori asked in his smooth voice.

"After you eat," the leader informed us. We all nodded and then moved to walk out of the room, but then the leader stopped me.

"Amaya."

"Yes?" I asked as Deidara and Sasori shut me in the room.

"Konan told me what you saw. If you repeat it to anyone, even in this organization, I will kill you. Do you understand?" he asked me.

"Yes sir," I said with a nod.

"Good." I moved to leave, but then I stopped, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Leader, what is your name?" I asked. His ringed eyes looked at me, full of anger and pain.

"Lord Pein," was all he said. I opened my mouth to apologize, but the door slammed open and an unseen force pushed me out the door. I stumbled and fell on my butt and just sat there, processing everything that had happened. I was now a member of the Akatsuki, but would that save me or had I just damned myself?


	7. Chapter 7: Going Back

**A/N: Yay new chapter! I've pretty much given up on updating on certain days. I'll probably just update at the very least, once a week. I just keep getting ideas and then finishing a chapter and then having more ideas and I'm getting way a head of myself so I'm just saying screw it, I'm just going to post, so here I am. Posting. I hope everyone enjoys and please review! Reviews make me want to update even more. ;)**

**Chapter 7: Going Back**

Dinner was probably the most awkward affair of my life. I got to meet the only other members I hadn't met yet, which was just 'Tobi', the masked man from before. He was a part of the reason dinner was so awkward, mainly because since he didn't have any skin showing, he decided to show off the fact that he could cling to me and nothing would happen to everyone else, who frankly didn't care. I just didn't get why he seemed so...stupid all of the sudden. Was that normal for him?

The second thing that made dinner awkward had to be the fact that while everyone else was eating something that had been cooked, Zetsu was eating something that had looked alive when I had walked in the room. It made it really hard to eat, considering I could smell whatever it was he was eating. No one other than me seemed to even notice, they just kept eating like nothing was happening.

The third and finally thing was that everyone, other than Tobi, was sitting as far away from me as they possibly could. It wasn't even because I scared them, it was because they were all afraid I would accidentally touch them. By that point all of them knew what I could do and I guess they didn't want me knowing anymore than I did about their past. I didn't blame them. I didn't want to know anymore either.

"Tobi thinks that Maya-chan should be allowed to stay with Tobi!" Tobi said brightly, nuzzling my shoulder. I sighed and just took another bite of whatever it was that Konan had made. Kisame chuckled.

"Here that Itachi, the kid wants the girl," he said nudging the raven haired man sitting next to him.

"Hn," was Itachi's only reply. It was kind of odd, since he'd been around everyone else, he'd been even quieter. Hidan on the other hand was much different.

"The little fucker is after the bitch, why does that not surprise me?" he snapped. I set my chopsticks down on my plate and glared at him. I was getting really sick of being called a bitch.

"Can you please just call me by my name?" I requested. Kisame scoffed.

"Keep trying, Hidan will never call you anything other than 'bitch'," he told me.

"The asshole is right, bitch," he said, proving Kisame's point. I sighed and stood up. I glanced at Sasori and Deidara.

"I'll be in my room," I told them. Deidara just ignored me, but a slight nod from Sasori let me know that he would come get me when they were done and we were leaving for the mission.

Without saying anything else, I left, only to realize that I had no idea how to get to my room. This was just great. I sighed and slide to the floor. Everything was happening to fast. First my mother died, then I was chased out of my own village, and now here I was, among the very same people who were meant to kill me. It was like my life was a kunai flying towards a target, with nothing anyone could do to stop it. I just hoped it hit soon, because I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take.

"Do you need help?" a dark voice asked me. I looked up to see 'Tobi' staring down at me, only his voice wasn't like before. It was the same voice he had used whenever I had first met him when I was alone in my room. I stood and eyed him warily.

"Um, yes," I answered. He gave a slight nod and I followed after him. He was silent as we walked, something that made me very uncomfortable. Tobi confused me, first he was this scary guy who wanted me gone, next he was this playful little man-child who wanted me to be his best friend, now he was the scary guy again only this time he was helping me. Seriously, he was making my head spin.

"So who are you, really?" I asked him, breaking the tense silence. He stopped moving and turned around. I could see one eye through the hole in the mask. The eye possessed the sharingan. So he was an Uchiha.

"That is none of your concern, girl." I sighed.

"But let me guess, you don't want me to tell anyone about this side of you?" I asked him.

"You're catching on quickly," he growled.

"So why are you acting this way around me?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"Because, you might have gotten curious and touched me," he said. I scoffed.

"I doubt it. I don't enjoy seeing the horrors of people's lives," I told him. He didn't respond, just pointed to a door down the hall.

"There's your room," he said simply. I nodded and walked down the hall. I slammed the door behind me and sighed. Things were getting worse by the second. TO be honest, I was a little excited to be leaving this...cave...headquaters...whatever? Even though I would be stuck with Sasori and Deidara, I would be able to feel the fresh air, to be able to run through the trees again, and I was even going to be trained to be an actual ninja...by rouges, but still.

I'd always wanted to become a ninja.

"Are you ready to leave?" a soft voice said from behind me. I flipped around, startled only to see Sasori. Jeez, I hadn't even heard the door open. I looked around the room, only to remember that I had everything with me already except...

"Where's my dagger?" I asked him. He smirked at me.

"We kept it, so you wouldn't think of trying anything, but since we are going on a mission, I suppose you'll need it, but the brat and I will hold onto it for you," he told me. I sighed, I guess I should have figured as much.

"Well, then I'm ready," I told him. He nodded and gestured for me to follow.

"Took you long enough, yeah," Deidara said in an annoyed tone.

"Hush brat," Sasori commanded.

"So where are we going?" I asked them.

"We need to go to a village outside of yours to find a jinchuriki," he told me. I was confused.

"What's a jinchuriki?" I asked him. He sighed, which kind of offended me, I mean, it wasn't my fault I didn't know what it was. He had to remember, I hadn't really traveled much.

"Have you ever heard of the tailed beasts?" he asked me. I nodded.

"The jinchuriki are the people who host the tailed beasts," he explained. I nodded.

"So where is the jinchuriki?" I tried again.

"In a village close to yours. we actually are going to be crossing through that area," he told me. I felt my stomach tighten. Did I really want to go back there? What would happen if I did? They had already chased me out once, would they try again? And what about Sasori and Deidara, would they just let them kill me? It would save them some trouble I guess. Then their secrets would be safe, and they wouldn't have to deal with training me.

Once again, I had no choice.

"Ok," I said simply. He nodded and then brought out a scroll. Placing it on the ground, he summoned...a puppet? So Sasori was a puppet master. Hm, I guess I should have assumed that from the vision I had of him being held by the two puppets. I watched him as he climbed into the puppet and sealed it behind him. I leaned over to Deidara.

"What is that?" I asked him.

"It's a puppet he uses as armor. He called it Hiruko. He thinks it's true art," he said with a scoff. I cocked my head to the side.

"Then what is true art?" I asked. A moment later I realized I should have kept my mouth shut.

"True art is a fleeting explosion, a burst of light that's gone in an instant, true art is a bang!"

"Ha," a deep growly voice said. I looked over and realized that it was Hiruko...er Sasori inside Hiruko.

"True art is beauty preserved to last a life time, true art is eternal," he snarled. I listened as the two of them went back and forth, arguing about art. Was this what I was stuck with the whole way back to my village? I certainly hoped not, but I could tell as we left the cave that they weren't going to stop anytime soon.

"Danna, I respect your opinions as a fellow artist, but art is an explosion! That's true beauty."

"Little brat, an explosion is nothing more than a bright light that fades away. Art lasts forever for all to see." Yeah, this was going to be a fun trip.

**A/N: So I have decided to put up a poll for this story. I've been wondering who to pair Amaya with and I realized I have no clue who would fit with her so I decided to ask you guys! So please go to my profile page and vote on the poll! It will be open until Christmas Eve so you have time. =)**


	8. Chapter 8: Secrets Revealed

**A/N: Ok, chapter eight, good stuff. I feel like a girly-girl today because I've been watching a lot of lifetime movies, painting my nails, and drinking tea...well I drink tea anyway, tea is awesome, don't judge. Seriously! Tea is like the best drink ever! I don't use teabags though, those are nasty, I like actual tea leaves. Anywho, I just feel like a girl. Now, onward and forward to the chapter! By the way I'm sorry if he beginning of this chapter is a little rough, I had a hard time starting it.**

**Chapter 8: Secrets Revealed**

"Do you ever sleep?" I asked Sasori. It had already been a day since we had set out from the headquarters and the night before I had noticed that Sasori had stood guard all night. I knew this just because there was no way I was going to sleep around these two, not when they could kill me.

"Hm?" Sasori growled in is deep Hiruko voice. I shuddered at the sound, I was really starting to not like that puppet, but he hadn't gotten out of it since we had left.

"Do you sleep?" I asked him again. He chuckled.

"Ask the brat," he told me. I turned around and looked at Deidara, who had been wandering behind Sasori and I. He was playing with something in his hands, his attention was completely focused on it and didn't notice me pause and wait for him to catch up. Once he reached me I started walking again. He didn't look at me once, but I could tell he knew I was there. He was a trained ninja after all.

"What do you want, hm?" he asked me.

"Does Sasori ever sleep?" I asked him. He looked up from his hand and smirked at me.

"Why? Thinking about escaping while we sleep?" he asked. I shook my head.

"No, I know that would be pointless. You guys would be able to track me down easily," I told him. He chuckled and look back at his hands. It was silent for a moment before he actually answered my question.

"Danna never sleeps, yeah," he told me quietly, it almost sounded like he was talking more to himself more than me. I sighed. I thought that traveling with a group of criminals would be more fun than this, but it wasn't and the closer we got to the village, the more antsy I got. I still wasn't sure how the villagers would react to me coming back.

"How much longer until we reach the village?" I asked. Deidara looked back up at me, his expression annoyed.

"Why are you asking so many questions, yeah?" he asked, glaring down at me. I held up both of my hands in a surrendering gesture and sped up, settling on walking in between Sasori and Deidara. I didn't feel as on edge with Diedara behind me as I would have Sasori, he seemed too distracted by whatever he was messing with in his hands anyway.

I settled on just walking after that. Neither of them were much for talking, meaning I was forced to remain silent, something that became harder and harder the closer we got to the village. I was petrified. I knew that they weren't just going to let me waltz through the village like nothing ever happened. There would be whispers, maybe even more than before.

"We're here," Hiruko's voice said from in front of me. I looked p and sure enough there were the front gates to my village. I took a deep breath of air, this was it. I was back home. I sped up so I could be walking next to Sasori, as did Diedara. I had to admit, even though I wasn't sure how they were going to react if I was attacked, I felt a lot safer standing in between the two of them.

"Look, the witch is back!" I heard an old lady whisper. I flinched and Diedara gave me a confused look.

"Are they talking about you?" he asked me. I just nodded.

"I thought she was burned."

"It's the witch."

"She's come back to take more of our children!"

"Why isn't she dead yet?" I wasn't sure why, but I felt my eyes fill with tears at their words. Never before, had their meanness bothered me, but this time it was different. Maybe it was because I was alone this time around. My mother was gone and it was just me. I had to take everything on my own. It made every insult feel a thousand times worse than before.

"Hey!" A familiar voice called out. The three of us turned, bringing me face to face with the ninja from before, the one that I had almost killed but spared.

"What do you want?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice as empty as possible. The man sneered at me.

"You don't belong here in this village, witch," he snarled. I rolled my eyes. I knew something like this would happen. I guess that I would have to fight after all, even though I didn't want to. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Deidara shift forward, but then something long and metal stopped him. I guess Sasori had a tail...who knew?

"Don' get involved Deidara, this could be our chance to see how skilled she really is," Hiruko growled. I sighed. Go figure, this is how they test me.

"Can I have my dagger back?" I asked him. Hiruko nodded at Deidara, who reached into his cloak and pulled out my dagger. He tossed it over to me, and I caught it easily. I felt slightly better having it's weight in my hand. I removed it from it's sheath and dropped the sheath on the ground. The chunin started to chuckle.

"Aw, the little witch is crying," he taunted. I cocked my head to the side and lifted up my hand, sure enough, there were tears streaming down my face. I decided to just ignore them and focus my attention on the ninja in front of me. He had a smirk on his face and a kunai in one hand. He looked slightly more cocky than the last time, leading me to believe that he had a trick up his sleeve. I would have to be prepared.

I shifted into a sighting stance and waited. I wasn't going to make the first move.

As it turned out, I didn't have to wait long. He launched forward and swung his kunai at me. It was almost too easy to block it. He made a quick hand sign and two more of him appeared, swinging at me. I jumped out of the way and flipped out of reach. The three of him continued to smirk at me, making me feel sick in the pit of my stomach. I performed a couple of hand signs.

"Water style: water gun!" (**A/N: I kid you not, real jutsu!**) I shouted, placing my fingers around my lips. I converted my chakra into water and spit it at him. He managed to dodge it, but one of his clones wasn't so lucky. I watched him as he did some hand signs and placed his fingers to his lips just as I had done.

"Fire style: Fire ball jutsu!" A huge ball of flame appeared around his mouth. I cursed as he spit it at me and it came flying towards me. I managed to move out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough and a part of the flame nicked my leg. I winced as I landed on it, but remained standing. So that was his ace in the hole.

Fire did beat water, but I had another trick up my sleeve.

"The witch is fighting."

"I hope she dies." I heard people from the streets saying. I gritted my teeth. I couldn't use it, not with all of these people around.

"Your holding back," I heard Sasori growl. He was right, but as I said before I couldn't use it. If I did, who knows what Sasori and Deidara would do if they knew. I already knew what the village would do, they would kill me. Another fire ball came flying toward me. I guess I had no choice...again. This was really getting old. I performed the proper hand signs and took a deep breath.

"Ice Style: Certain-Kill Ice Spears!" Right where the ninja was standing huge spikes of ice exploded from the ground and trapped him. I hadn't wanted to hurt him, I just wanted this fight to be over. The crowd was silent while I limped back over to Sasori and Deidara.

"You're from the Yuki clan, that's unexpected," Sasori growled. His puppets eyes moved down to my leg and then back up to me.

"I'll heal you when we reach an inn, brat, help her out," he snapped. Deidara nodded and freaking scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder!

"Hey!" I snapped.

"Shut up, yeah!" he snapped back. I just sighed.

"She's of the Yuki clan."

"She's cursed." I guess there was no hiding it anymore. They all knew my mother and I's big secret.

_"Mother, why did we have to leave?" I asked my mother one night while we were curled up by the fire. Ever since I was a baby she had told me that we were from another village, full of people like us. She told me we were from a special clan, the Yuki Clan, and our power over ice was something normal there. She had never told me why we had left though._

_"Because we had to," she told me, he eyes distant. I groaned._

_"That's not a real answer," I told her. She smiled at me and then sighed._

_"Well, there was a civil war in our land and when it was over, our clan was forced to scatter and go into hiding. We are cursed now, for our crimes in the war," she told me. I rested my head on her lap and let her pet my hair._

_"Is that why we can't use out ice style jutsu?" I asked her quietly. She nodded._

_"Yes dear, because if the people of this village found out, we would be hunted, even more so than we are now," she told me._

_"Did other people in our clan have our power?" I asked her._

_"No. That's always been just our family. My mother had visions before me, and her mother before her. It's something we all live with," she told me. I sighed._

"We're here," Hiruko growled. Deidara unceremoniously dropped me on the bed. I glared at him, but he just ignored me. I heard a clicking noise as Sasori climbed out of Hiruko. His brown eyes were watching me warily. To avoid his gaze, I looked around the room. It seemed simple enough, cream colored walls, hard wood floor, two beds...wait a second.

"Why are there only two beds?" I asked. Sasori gave me a look.

"Because I don't sleep, remember?" he said. Oh yeah. I kep my eyes on him as he moved closer to heal the burn on my leg. It had burned through my sock, meaning I was going to have to get a different one. That meant going back into the village.

"So you're member of the Yuki Clan, yeah," Deidara said absently. I nodded. I guess there was no use hiding it from them any longer.

"Yeah. My full name is Amaya Yuki, night rain snow. My mother and father went into hiding after the civil war in my country. After he died it was just my mother and I," I told them.

"Our leader will find this news interesting," Sasori said beginning to heal my leg. The two of them were quiet, both thinking over what I had told them. I sighed. Everything was getting really complicated.

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter was kind of suckish. I've been really distracted recently. The good news is I've added eating pizza on my list of things that I'm doing. I'll try and update soon with a better chapter, because this one sucks. =P**


	9. Chapter 9: Where Have the Children Gone?

**A/N: This chapter will be better, this chapter will be better, this chapter will be better...oh hello, I was just chanting this mantra to myself, because I hated the last chapter. I also realized that I forgot to remind everyone about the poll, please vote on it! If you do I will love you forever, I mean it! Anyway, onto the story.**

**Chapter 9: Where Have the Children Gone?**

"There, your leg should be better now," Sasori said standing and moving away from me. He went to lean his back against the wall, while I shifted my leg, just to be sure. I sighed and stood, stretching my arms. Having not slept the night before and using up most of my chakra, I was exhausted. I glanced between Sasori and Deidara, both were being quiet and staring off into space.

"Um, thank you for healing my leg," I told Sasori. I had hoped that it would break the silence, but instead he just nodded and went back to staring. I sighed, I guess there was no avoiding it, I needed a new sock and I was tired of sitting in silence. I walked to the door and opened it, but Deidara stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going, hm?" he asked me. Oh, now he talks. Sheesh.

"I need to get a new sock, since mine has a hole burned into it," I told him. He smirked at me.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I thought these people were out to kill you, yeah," he said being the smartass he is. I shrugged.

"They've always wanted to kill me, but most of the time they're too afraid to come near me because they're afraid I'll 'curse' them or something," I told him. He shook his head and pushed off of the wall.

"Well, you can't go alone, you might try and escape, so I'm coming with you," he told me. I raised an eyebrow.

"To get a sock?" I questioned. He just crossed his arms.

"It could be interesting," he said. I just sighed and walked out the door, knowing full well he was about to follow me. He stayed behind me as I exited the inn, receiving a glare from the woman behind the counter. I just shrugged it off. I wasn't sure what had happened earlier when I had started crying, but I didn't plan on letting it happen again. I wasn't going to let these people get to me, they just weren't worth it.

As expected, I received many more glares as I stepped outside onto the street. It was only slightly worse, because now they knew the truth, that I was from the Yuki Clan. This village was one of the villages raided by my clan, making me public enemy number one, not that I wasn't before, but now they had an actual reason to hate me, other than their ridiculous rumors that is.

"People really seem to hate you, what did you do to make them so mad, hm?" Deidara asked me, coming up to walk beside me. His smirk was mocking, only irritating me even further.

"Well, before they found out about my clan they had hated me because I was my mother's daughter. When we had first come here, and she would go back and forth between our house and the village, she would purposely grab people and tell them how they die. Needless to say when her predictions came true, they thought she was causing it. That was the start of their hate, but then they found out what I could do, and, like anyone, they were uncomfortable with me knowing their intimate pasts, so they just hated me more," I explained. He scoffed.

"Doesn't really seem like a good reason, it's not like you hurt anyone, yeah," he said. I nodded.

"Yeah, but now they think that I'm responsible for all of the children disappearing." Just as I said that a woman approached me and spit at my feet. I recognized her as the woman being beaten in the vision I had when I had taken the little boys hand.

"You! You are the reason my baby is gone! You took his hand and now he's gone!" she screamed. People on the streets stopped to see what was going on, but I ignored them, I just kept my eyes on the woman. I stepped closer to her and her eyes widened in fear.

"You shouldn't let your husband beat you around in front of your son," I told her quietly so no one else would hear. Her eyes widened and then narrowed in fury.

"It doesn't matter now because you took him! You're a monster, a witch!" she snapped. I sighed. I should have known she wasn't going to listen.

I really wished I did know what was happening to the children in this village, not just because I didn't want to be blamed for something I didn't do, but because they were only children. If I would have been taken from my mother when I was a child, I don't know what I would do. I had asked my mother if she would help me find the children back before she had died, but she had only told me that it wasn't our place and if anything, it wold only make them hate me more, but I couldn't let it go.

"What is all this talk about missing children, hm?" Deidara asked me, as we moved past the woman.

"For a month now, kids have been going missing in the village. The villagers could find no explanation for it so naturally they blamed me and my mother," I explained.

"Sounds like Orochimaru's handiwork," Deidara said thoughtfully. I stopped and looked at him.

"What?" I asked. He just stared at me blankly.

"Orochimaru, one of the three legendary sanin? He likes to do experiments on people and usually takes children, yeah," he told me with a shrug. Without thinking I grabbed his arms.

"Do you know what this means! We can save the children!" I told him. He pushed me off of him and glared at me.

"What the hell are you talking about? It's not our problem, hm," he said. I sighed.

"Why not just consider it a part of my training? Please, I need to do this," I told him. He rolled his visible eye.

"Talk to danna when we get back," he said walking past me. I smiled. That was half of a yes to me. We continued over to the clothing store where i managed to find another sock. Deidara ended up having to purchase it because the woman behind the counter refused to acknowledge my presence.

When we finally got back to the inn I prepare myself for the inevitable argument I was about to have with Sasori.

"We're back," Deidara said flopping down on one of the beds.

"I can see that brat," Sasori growled. Great, he was in a bad mood, this was going to be fun.

"Hey Sasori?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think we could maybe...save the children of this village from Orochimaru?" I asked him in a rush. He raised an eyebrow.

"No," he said simply. I groaned.

"Come on, why not consider it a part of my training?" I suggested.

"No."

"Please? You two won't even have to do anything, just come with me," I tried again.

"Orochimaru would eat you alive," Sasori told me. I sighed, he was right. I wasn't even a ninja, how would I be able to take one of the legendary sanin? Deidara sighed and propped himself up on his elbows.

"Come on danna, what's the worst that could happen? Besides, I've wanted to kill that bastard Orochimaru almost as much as I want to fight Itachi again, yeah," Deidara said with a smirk. Sasori sighed.

"Fine brat, we'll go, but only because I might find more interesting additions to my collection," he said. I leaned over to Deidara.

"What does he collect?" I asked. He scoffed.

"His 'art', if you ask me, it's pointless. I respect danna, but he doesn't know what true art is, yeah."

"Do you want to say that again, brat?" Not again...


	10. Chapter 10: In Orochimaru's Grasp

**A/N: So I have to say xBUzzOFF15x's comment made my day! It was just so detailed and hilarious, but I thought I'd go a head and let you know, I wasn't planning on going that route. So I'm apologizing in advance if I don't update for a while, since it's the holiday season and such, I promise that I will be back as soon as I can be. Also a huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed! I really appreciate it and I live you all for it! Also, don't forget about the poll! Vote if you haven't already! Oh and by the way, all of the jutsu from here on out, are actually from Naruto, I take zero credit for them.**

**Chapter 10: In Orochimaru's Grasp**

"Is that it?" I asked Sasori. We had left early in the morning, Sasori had told us that he had spies scattered all around Orochimaru's headquarters, meaning he knew where the sanin was at all times. Now, here we were, standing around outside of a dark cave, surrounded by enemy ninja. He didn't respond, something I had noticed he did often. I instead turned my attention to Deidara, who was wearing his signature smirk. There was also a look in his eye, something I hadn't seen before. He actually looked like a psycho and for the first time I was afraid of him. I guess I had one more name to add to my list of people to watch my back for.

"Amaya," Sasori growled. I looked down at him.

"Yes?" A large dark hand emerged from the folds of his cloak and held something out to me. I took it and felt myself completely flatline.

"What is this?" I asked in a breathless voice.

"It's a headband, you have enough training to at least be at a genin level, close to chunin. Besides, you need to appear to be a ninja when you attack." Those last words caught my attention and I moved my eyes from the headband to him.

"What?" I snapped.

"You said that we could consider this a part of your training," he said. I sighed and looked back at the headband. I ran my fingers over the symbol on it. This symbol of the village my clan hailed from in the Land of Water. It wasn't crossed out like Deidara's, and the rest of the Aktsuki's was, making me wonder if I would have to cross it out. To be honest, I kind of didn't want to. I didn't want to damage it.

I removed the headband I always worn and tied my new one around my forehead. For the first time, even though I had been training since I was a little girl, I felt like a true ninja. I prepared myself to attack the ninja guarding the entrance to the cave. This time, I wasn't going to hold anything back. Before I was worried about the villagers finding out about my clan, but now, I had no fears like that.

"Shadow clone jutsu," I muttered. Two more of me appeared next to me. This was not going to be easy. The hardest part of using the ice release was that if I didn't have ice around, I couldn't use most of ,my jutsu. The good news was I still had the water and wind release, but...they weren't as strong. Meaning that I was going to have to create ice.

"We will follow behind you," Deidara told me, his smirk still in place. I nodded and then moved forward. My clones followed behind me. One performing hand signs. Making ice was not an easy jutsu and used a lot of chakra. I would have to wait to use it until we got closer to Orochimaru and the children, so until then, I was going to have to resort to some good, old fashion techniques.

"Water style: gunshot!" my clone said. Her cheeks swelled with water that she had infused with chakra. I saw her rear back, preparing to spit it at the ninja. My other clone performed different hand signs.

"Wind style: divine wind!" she said. A gust of wind went straight for one of the ninja as the other me spit the water ball out at the other ninja. Since both of them had yet to notice me, both of my jutsus hit them and killed them instantly. I felt a flash of guilt, it was the first time I've ever killed someone, but I couldn't afford not to, I wanted to save the children and this was the only way I could do it.

I stopped, hearing the sound of leaves rustling. Someone was about to attack.

He dropped from the trees and I managed to dodge it just in time before he stabbed me. He swung his kunai around, hitting one of my clones. It poofed out of existence and with another quick motion, the other one did too, leaving me alone to face him. I reached behind me and removed my dagger. Sasori had given it back to me as we travelled, saying that I could have it until this mission was over. It's cool weight felt good in my hand.

I channeled my wind chakra into the blade, my mother had tried to teach me this technique, but I still hadn't perfected it. If he hit it too hard, he could shatter my dagger, leaving me unarmed. I may have had my dagger back, but Sasori still wouldn't give me my other tools back. I still had my jutsu, but I needed to save my chakra. I couldn't afford to use it all on a lackey.

I launched myself at him, but he blocked me easily. He was stronger than he looked. I backed up and prepared to strike again, but ten he stopped, something metal protruding from his chest. I glanced behind him and saw Sasori. I slipped my dagger back into it's sheath and straightened.

"We don't have time for this," he said. Deidara appeared behind him, his visible eye alight with excitement.

"I want to reach Orochimaru as soon as possible, yeah," he said with a smirk. I nodded.

"How are we going to find the children?" I asked them. Sasori chuckled.

"That will be your job, we're going to find Orochimaru," he told me. I sighed, I guess I should have known. The two of them weren't really the hero type. I wondered for a moment if I would be able to get away if I found the children and freed them before they could find Orochimaru, but then I remembered the other members of the Akatsuki. There would be no way they would let me get very far.

"Now go, and don't try to run," Sasori ordered, reading my mind. I nodded.

"I won't," I told him. He nodded and then, with Deidara, entered the cave. I sighed. I was really starting to get annoyed by their lack of help, but I guess it could have been worse. I could have gotten stuck with Itachi and Kisame.

After hesitating for a moment I walked into the cave. It kind of reminded me of the Akatsuki's hideout, though, as hard as it was to believe, it was darker and quieter. Wait...quiet? Why was it quiet? I strained my ears, trying to hear something, anything. There was a small sound in the direction in front of me, it sounded like...children crying. I ran towards the sound, even thought I should have been more cautious. I guess I really don't think sometimes, but like I said, I really wanted to help those kids. I also think that a part of me wanted to save those kids just to prove to everyone that I wasn't a monster.

Finally, I saw a light a head of me. I pushed myself to run faster until finally, I made it.

"It's the witch!" one of the kids said, noticing my appearance in the room. The rest of the kids turned towards me and then, almost simultaneously, scooted back, closer to the wall.

"It's alright," I told them, trying to calm them down. They just moved further back. I sighed, hating that they feared me. I ignored their fear and moved closer anyway. Then I heard another sound. Hissing.

"So, you're the witch girl," a soft voice said from behind me. I flipped around and held up my arms to guard the children and felt my blood run cold. It was Orochimaru. I didn't say anything, I just moved my hands. There was only one jutsu that I could use against him.

"Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals," I muttered. My ice mirrors surrounded him and I hide in the one in front of him. He smirked and licked his lips, making me want to shudder.

"So, you're from the Yuki Clan, I could find a use for you," he said. I moved to attack, but then the impossible happened. He shattered all of my mirrors at once. A strangled sound of pain escaped my throat as I fell to the ground. I forced myself to sit up and meet his eyes. I didn't expect him to be this strong, even though I knew he was a sanin. He moved closer to me and this time, I was the one who scooted away.

"What do you want?" I growled at him. He chuckled.

"You." My jaw dropped.

"Why?" I breathed without really thinking. I kind of needed to put a filter in my brain...

"Because of your kekkai genkai," he told me. I rolled my eyes.

"You're not very original are you?" I muttered. Lucky for me, he didn't seem to hear me.

"I found someone with your talents years ago, but unfortunately she got away. Now her daughter is here to take her place. I wonder if you share the same talent," he muttered. Before I could even move he reached out and grabbed my wrist, throwing me into darkness.

**A/N: Ah cliffhangers, the bane of readers everywhere. I promise I'll try and update as soon as possible and I'm sorry if this chapter was a little boring, but there are always boring chapters in stories. The next one will reveal a whole lot of plot twists so be prepared!**


	11. Chapter 11: A Familiar Face

**A/N: I'm back! How exciting. I've missed posting, but now I'm busy anymore, meaning I can post to my heart's content. ^_^ By the way, a big Happy New Year's to everyone! May your year be filled with good memories and good friends. Alright, here we go, new chapter! Please review and tell what you think!**

**Chapter 11: A Familiar Face**

This man has lived for far too long.

That was the only thought that crossed through my mind as my head was filled with images from him past. He's done so many horrible, horrible things to people, animals, any and everything with a pulse. I saw people who's faces were filled with terror, I heard their screams as he sliced into them, and I saw what they became, empty husks or blood thirsty monsters. I wasn't sure how long this was last, but then everything finally settled on one particular face.

"Mother?" I breathed. She looked exactly the same, but younger and her eyes were wide and fearful. Orochimaru approached her, licking his lips. I felt my stomach curl. I didn't want to see this. Everything in me was rejecting what I was seeing. I closed my eyes and placed my hands over my ears. I felt my legs give out as I fell to the ground.

I felt my knee hit a sharp rock, jarring me out of my vision and bringing me back to the real world. My eyes popped open and I felt tears well up in them. Every part of me was shaking. I didn't think I would have been able to stand even if I tried. I could hear the children behind me whimpering, but it sounded like background noise. I raised my eyes and looked that bastard in the eye.

"It seems you're different than your mother," he commented, licking his lips the way he did in my vision. I shivered and felt myself begin to shake even more violently. I needed to get out of here, I needed to get away from him. Why was I doing this? For the children of the village? The village that hated me? I was stupid, so stupid, and now I wasn't even going to die.

I was going to be an experiment, just like my mother.

"The witch, she's hurt?"

"What should we do?"

"We're trapped." The voices of the kids filled my ears, reminding me why I was doing this in the first place. They were innocents. They hadn't done anything wrong and they didn't deserve this.

"Orochimaru," I choked out. He stopped moving and looked at me curiously.

"Yes?" he hissed. I squeezed my eyes closed, knowing that what I was about to do was going to ruin my life.

"I'll go with you, but only if you let these children go," I told him. He smiled, like the cat that caught the canary. I felt my heart sinking as I figuratively signed my own death warrant. I hated that I was doing it, but I had to. I almost chuckled to myself because all I could think about was that Sasori and Deidara were going to be really pissed when they found out what was going to happen to me.

Orochimaru seemed to consider this. He moved closer and kneeled down in front of me, taking my chin in his icy hands, forcing me to look at him in his eyes. I felt myself drifting into the darkness of another vision, but, by grabbing the sharp rock I landed on and jamming it into my thigh. The pain kept my aware so I could hear everything he was saying to me.

"A member of the lost Yuki clan, with visions. I could easily take you and the kids, you can't fight me." My heart dropped, then he sighed.

"But I will let them go. I'll want to focus my attentions on you anyway," he said with a sick smile. My stomach twisted. He released my chin and I let go of the rock in my shaking hand. I wanted to move to see what Orochimaru was doing, but in my current state I couldn't even turn my head. I heard him move closer to the children and I heard their whimpers.

I willed my body to move, but I felt so drained and so weak. That vision I had took a lot out of me.

"Orochimaru, nice to see you again," I heard a familiar voice say. I forced my head to move up and let my eyes meet Hiruko's. Sasori was here. I wanted to feel relief, I wanted to feel something, but all I could think about were the red clouds. Red clouds kill me.

"Ah, Sasori, nice to see you again," Orchimaru said. I heard a growl emanating from Hiruko at the condescending tone in Orochimaru's voice. That was when it hit me, if Sasori was here then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have to stay here and we could save the kids.

"Sasori," I choked out. Hiruko's creepy looking eyes moved down to me.

"Amaya," he acknowledged. I waited for something more, but he looked back at Orochimaru.

"You're not going to have her. She belongs to the Akatsuki now," he told him. Orochimaru smiled. I just took that moment to ponder when I became a possession instead of a person.

"Danna, have you found him yet?" Deidara said coming around the corner. He froze and a smirk lit his face, then he spotted me and the smirk faded.

"Amaya?" he questioned. I tried to glare at him, but it failed. I really didn't have the energy anymore. Hiruko's eyes moved to Deidara.

"Take her. We are leaving," he growled. Orochimaru held up and hand, stopping anyone from moving.

"Ah, ah, ah, she agreed to stay if I released the children," he pointed out. Deidara cursed and I began to panic. Crap, did I do something wrong? Sometimes I just really needed to stop and think before I agreed to do things, though in my defense, I did see some traumatizing images and was bleeding on the floor...yes, I was only bleeding from the small gash in my leg and the cuts on my hand from giving myself the gash on my leg, but still, it counted for something!

"You didn't," Sasori growled. I couldn't meet their eyes. This time Sasori cursed, I'm not going to repeat it, but it was bad enough to make me look at him. The look on their faces made my heart drop.

"There's nothing we can do for you now, you're stuck here."

**A/N: Dramatic, right? Sorry to do this to you guys, but I love me some cliffhangers. Also the poll is now officially closed and the winner, who I will be pairing Amaya with, is...*drumroll please*...Itachi!**


	12. Chapter 12: My Savior

**A/N: Wow, chapter twelve. I didn't realize how far I was into this story until right now. I'm not sure how long it's going to be yet, but I'll figure it out soon enough. I had to know who I was pairing Amaya with before I could finish the outline of the story. In other news I have a deviantart account. It's under the name Lexi-Ever if any of you want to check it out. I can't draw, but I do some photography and I like to post my friend Kelsey's drawing because thy are seriously AMAZING! And now onto chapter twelve!**

**Chapter 12: My Savior**

It had been a week. Seven days since Sasori and Deidara had left me here with Orochimaru.

As promised, he had let the children go, but ever since it's like he's been taking losing all of them out on me. I was kept in a small cell that, to be quite honest, really wasn't that clean. They had also put two chakra restraints on around my wrists so I couldn't perform any jutsu. A gray haired boy had taken my clothes from me, leaving me naked and cold, the first day I was here. Since then I had been strapped down to a cold metallic table more times then I could count.

I had already lost a few pounds and my whole body was covered in stitches, bruises, and scrapes. I had also been subjected to, what Orochimaru called, 'vision accuracy tests'. During these tests he would bring in some of his other 'test subjects' touch me and then would ask me what I saw and have the subject verify if what I said is true. It was hell. Everyone in here had a torturous past and being forced to see them all...it was almost worse than the physical torture.

"Lord Orochimaru has asked for you." I looked up. I could only see out of one of my eyes. The other one was swollen shut from the hit I took from the last guy who's past I saw. As it turns out. Not many people want others to know about their past pain. It was the gray haired boy. I had learned his name was Kabuto...and that he was almost worse than Orochimaru.

I did my best to glare at him, even though it hurt. He just smirked.

"No," I said, my voice raw from thirst. They only gave me a little water a day. Maybe if I was lucky I would die of thirst, but I've never really been the lucky type, so I figured, while I was living, I was not going to make this easy for them. Kabuto sighed and shook his head.

"When will you learn, resisting isn't going to do you any good," he told me in a mocking tone. I just spit in his general direction...nothing came out, but it's the thought that counts, right? His eyes narrowed and he roughly grabbed my arm. Anytime anyone came to get me, they were always wearing gloves, instructed by Orochimaru no doubt, so I wouldn't be plunged into a vision.

All I could do now, was wait and wonder if the Akatsuki was going to come back for me.

He pulled me, actually it was more like he dragged me, down the hall, turning so many times that I felt disoriented. Finally, after what seemed like ages, we finally made it to Orochimaru's room. I was surprised to see that he was in bed and that there was someone else in the room. At first my heart dropped. Was this going to be another vision test? Then I realized that this one was different.

He didn't look like he had been in a cage. He looked clean and strong. He didn't even have any chakra restraints. He must have been a favorite of Orochimaru's. His eyes were dark, reminding me a little of Itachi's. Actually, he looked really familiar. It was like I had seen him somewhere before, but my mind was working slowly after not eating or drinking much for days.

"Ah, Amaya, it's good to see you," Orochimaru hissed. I glared at him.

"Why did you want me?" I croaked out. He smiled and gestured to the familiar looking boy.

"This is Sasuke. I want you to touch him and tell me what you see." I grimaced. This was exactly what I was afraid of. The one called Sasuke looked at me, his eyes betraying nothing. I limped over to him, my legs shaking from exhaustion and then took a deep breath, preparing myself for the hell that awaited me. Then I slowly reached out and grabbed his wrist.

In an instant I was plunged into darkness. As it turns out, the weaker I was, the harder it was for me to resist the visions. This was something Orochimaru noticed. It was why I had been denied food and water. I always saw more when I was weak. The vision opened up to a familiar scene, something I didn't quiet expect. I saw a little boy, a younger version of Sasuke, standing over the dead bodies of his parents.

He looked so young and terrified and I followed his eyes as they lifted to see the killer of his family. I had to contain a gasp. Itachi? Then this boy was...oh my god. Sasuke was Itachi's little brother, the one he let live! I watched as the scene continued to play out. I felt all of Sasuke's emotions towards Itachi. Anger, hurt, betrayal, and the overwhelming need for revenge.

Sasuke was here because of Itachi.

Finally, I was thrown out of the vision. I released Sasuke's hand and stared at him. Now that I knew the truth I could see similarities in their appearances. Their eyes, the hair color, the silent stoic stance, there was no doubt in my mind that they were brothers. Sasuke's dark eyes were focused on me. The once emotionless orbs were now full of outrage, but he didn't strike me, something I was thankful for.

"So Amaya, what did you see?" Orochimaru asked me with a smirk. I looked between him and Sasuke. I could see in his eyes that he didn't want me to talk, but if I was caught lying...let's just say, it was not something I wanted to risk.

"I saw the slaughter of the Uchiha clan," I told him honestly. I wasn't going to go into detail out of fear of Sasuke. Oddly enough, his brother who killed his entire clan, seemed kinder than Sasuke. Maybe it was because Itachi was forced to do it and Sasuke willing went to Orochimaru.

"Is this true, Sasuke?" Orochimaru asked him. Sasuke nodded tersely. Orochimaru gestured to Kabuto, who began to take me away, but then Sasuke stopped him.

"Let me take her," he said. I felt fear shoot through me. What was he going to do? Kabuto shrugged and let Sasuke move forward and take my arm. He made sure to give Sasuke a glove though, so he wouldn't make contact with my skin. He seemed confused, but put it on anyway.

He pulled me, a little more gentle than Kabuto had, out of the room and through the halls. Again, it felt like forever before we finally made it back to my cell/cage. I waited for him to throw me in, but he didn't, he just released my arm and stared me down with those dark eyes.

"How did you see that?" he asked me, his voice leaving no room for aversion. I sighed.

"I see things, when people touch me. I see past events in their lives," I told him. He just stared at me quietly. A moment later, he pushed me into the cell and locked the door behind me, then walked away without a single backward glance.

I curled up against the furthest corner from the front and closed my eyes, hoping to get some sleep before they came to retrieve me for more torture. I had just been about to drift off when a strange sound caught my attention. It sounded like...a raven? I opened my eyes and sure enough there was a big black bird outside of my cell, staring at me.

I crawled to the front of the cell. I was surprised to see that the bird didn't move, it just kept watching me. I heard the sound of shuffling wings, causing me to look up. There were a ton of ravens, perched on a pipe, all of them looking at me. This may sound silly, but the only thought that crossed my mind was 'great, now I'm hallucinating.'

"Amaya," a familiar deep voice said. A moment later the ravens swarmed together in a dark mass and Itachi appeared, his eyes watching me, just like the ravens' had.

"Itachi?" I said, still thinking that I was hallucinating. I wasn't really sure what he did to the lock on the cell, but a moment later the door popped open and Itachi came in and picked me up.

If I weren't so exhausted and weak, I probably would have protested, or at least been shy because, let's not forget, I was naked, but unfortunately, I was not in possession of my right mind. He didn't say anything as he carried me into the halls, there I saw another tall figure dressed in a black cloak with red clouds.

"I see you found her, Itachi," Kisame said with a grin. Itachi said nothing. Kisame looked at me.

"I managed to grab your clothes and weapons. We're taking you back to the base," he told me. That was the last thing I remembered, before finally passing out.


	13. Chapter 13: Recovery

**A/N: Ok, so here we go. I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted a chapter, so I hope this one is to everyone's liking. Please review! =)**

**Chapter 13: Recovery**

My eyes opened slowly and my vision was blurred. I felt cold, my body started to shiver and pain shot up my entire my body. That's right. I was with Orochimaru...in hell. My breathing started to quicken, without my permission, and I felt my heart rate picked up. I was scared. I didn't want to be, but I was scared. I looked around the room, trying to figure out where I was, but i still couldn't see.

Then a hand entered my line of sight. I felt myself flinch away from the hand, sending more waves of pain up my body. The hand hesitated a moment, bu them reached out and touched my face. I gasped and was thrown into darkness. No! No, no, no! No more visions! The darkness was all around me, suffocating me. I used to not hate these visions, but now I did. I'd seen too much.

The darkness cleared and I saw a familiar looking boy, holding a baby in his arms and staring up at the sky. There was a glow, like a fire in the distance and I felt the boys worry and then he turned and...he looked at me. Or at least, his eyes were facing me. It was Itachi. Just seeing him made my entire body relax. If I was seeing his past then I must have been back with the Akatsuki and even knowing that they could kill me was less scary than being trapped with Orochimaru.

My vision cleared and this time there was no blurriness. I was finally able to see everything a little more clearly and after, a moment of searching, I let my eyes settle on Itachi, who was sitting next to my bedside. All of the sudden, my memory of what happened in Orochimaru's hideout came back. He and Kisame had come to save me. they were the reason I was free again.

"You've been asleep for three days," he told me. I felt my eyes get a little wider.

"Three days? Are you kidding? I feel like I've only been asleep for an hour," I said dryly. He didn't reply. a moment later the door opened and in came Konan. Her amber eyes went from me to Itachi and she gave him a look that told him to get out. Obeying, he stood and left the room. I frowned at Konan, but she ignored me.

"We managed to heal your major wounds, but you will have scars and will probably be sore for a couple of days," she told me. I nodded.

"Thank you," I said, filling the silence. She just stared at me, her amber eyes looking a little defensive. It bothered me that she didn't really seem to like me very much, but I guess there wasn't really much I could do about that.

"Your clothes and dagger are in the chair on the other side of your bed. I'll leave you to get dressed. Also, do not think that just because we are letting you have your weapon that we trust you, you are still under watch in this organization and won't be allowed to go on missions for a time," she told me. I nodded and forced myself to sit up, wincing as I did so.

Konan left the room, leaving me to my own devices. I looked down at myself, glad to see that I was covered by a blanket. I really didn't want the Akatsuki to see me naked, but then I remembered. Itachi had seen me naked when he had come to save me. I felt my face heat up. How embarrassing. I removed the cover and surveyed myself.

I was covered in bruises and small cuts, but I looked a lot better than I had before. All of my bruises were just an ugly purple instead of a nasty green color and my cuts didn't look as bad as they used to. All in all, I was in one piece, which was all that mattered. I gently swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood, doing my best to stay standing without grabbing anything to hold myself up. I grabbed my clothes and quickly dressed. That was when I noticed my ninja headband was still there.

I picked it up and ran my fingers of the Village Hidden in the Mist's symbol. That land was my home, the land my clan came from. The land that hated me. In a moment of blind fury, I grabbed my dagger and dug it into the metal of the headband and in one quick motion, I slashed through it. I was a missing nin now. A member of the Akatsuki.

"Are you finished?" Konan said, re-entering the room. I silently nodded and took my headband and tied it around my head, under my silver hair. I turned towards Konan, who eyed my headband in amusement. She gestured for me to follow her and I did, though a little slower than I would have liked.

She led me through the halls and back to my room. She opened the door for me and gestured for me enter. I complied and she shut the door behind me. Sighing, I plopped down on my bed. What was I doing here? I was surrounded by people who could be my killer and I was getting...comfortable. I had to keep my guard up. The moment I had a lapse could be the moment I die.

There was a knock on my door.

"Come in," I called. The door opened a crack and in walked Sasori and he looked...mad.

"You're looking better," he said tersely. I frowned, not really sure what I did wrong.

"Yes," I said cautiously. There was silence between us for a moment and then Sasori spoke.

"What were you thinking?" he asked in through his teeth. I raised an eyebrow.

"I was thinking that I wanted to save those kids," I told him. He rolled his eyes.

"What you did was stupid. Orochimaru is not someone to make deals with and now, because of you, Orochimaru might try and attack us," he told me.

"Oh," was all I could say. I guess I didn't really think about that.

"Calm down danna, she's still not fully recovered," I heard Deidara's voice say from the hall. Sasori scoffed and pulled open the door, slamming it behind him. I sighed. He had a point. I might have just given them all another reason to kill me. I really sucked at thinking things through and now, I might have just signed my own death warrant.


	14. Chapter 14: Too Close for Comfort

**A/N: Ok, here's chapter fourteen. I'm getting really excited for this story, I'm not even really sure why, I just really looking forward to writing more. In other news if any of you haven't already please, please, please, check out my other story Unreal and the sequel Unbelievable and also, if you like this story check out Captured by a friend of mine, Tabkinesis. Now, onto the story. **

**Chapter 14: Too Close for Comfort**

"Remind me again, why you're having the sick person help cook?" I groaned as I helped Konan cook. She looked at me with her cool amber eyes.

"Because, technically you're not sick, you are only injured," she reasoned. I sighed, she had a point though I wasn't going to admit it. I left the stove to take the stack of plates and set them at the table. It had been a day since Sasori had gotten mad at me and he hasn't spoken to me since. The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. By making a dal with Orochimaru I put everyone in the Akatsuki in danger.

Not that they couldn't handle it, it was apparently just an uneeded hassle.

"Hey bitch, dinner almost ready? I'm fucking starving," Hidan said walking into the dining room. I glared at him. I still wasn't really too keen on him. He still kind of freaked me out and I always did my best to avoid him. Touching him probably would have given me nightmares for weeks.

"It'll be ready here soon, just be patient," I said muttering the last part under my breath. I heard Hidan mutter a few choice words, but I ignored him, returning to the kitchen with Konan. I noticed her peering out at me from the corner of her eye.

Ever since I had returned I realized that I was never alone. If I was in the halls there ws always someone following me and even when I woke up in the middle of the night I spotted a pair of glowing yellow eyes hanging from the ceiling. I wasn't really sure why they were watching me. I wondered if it had anything to do with my time at Orochimaru's.

"The leader wants to see Amaya," I heard a familiar voice say as I entered the kitchen. Dark and amber eyes met my crimson ones. I felt my face flush and I averted my eyes from Itachi. I still hadn't gotten over the whole, I was naked in front of him, thing. Seriously, can you blame me?

"I'll finish dinner, you go," Konan ordered. I sighed and followed Itachi as he left the kitchen. We were both silent as we made our way through the hallways. I was finally starting to understand the layout of this cave/hideout thing, it was just like a maze, I just needed to find the small landmarks to be able to find my way.

"Are you feeling any better?" Itachi's deep voice asked me. My face flushed again.

"Better than yesterday," I told him. He nodded slightly and slowed down so that I was walking next to him instead of behind him. I refused to look at him, feeling shy for the first time in my life. Needless to say, I didn't like it.

"Sorry about the vision," I heard him say softly. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

"It's alright, it wasn't that bad," I lied. Every vision was bad in it's own way and always left me feeling drained. I could tell Itachi wanted to say something, but we had reached the door to the leader's office. For a moment I had a flash of how the man was before. Nagato. A part of me, the part I usually ignored, wanted to touch him to find out more about his mysterious past, but, needless to say, I ignored it.

"Amaya Yuki, that is your full name, correct?" he asked as I entered the office. I expected Itachi to leave, but instead he stayed, hanging back in the shadows near the door.

"Yes," I answered him. He nodded, his strange eyes watching me closely.

"So you're a member of the cursed Yuki Clan, Sasori told me of your skill using the ice technique, you still need more training though, I'll have Konan see to that." Yay, I get to spend more time with the ice princess...joy.

"When will I start?" I asked. Though I wasn't too keen on spending more time with Konan, I was looking forward to learning more jutsu and becoming stronger.

"Tomorrow. Now, I have one more thing to discuss with you."

"Yes?"

"What happened while you were with Orochimaru?" Shock rolled through me. I really didn't want to think about my time there, but I figured that if I answered he might stop sending people to watch me.

"He performed a lot of different experiments on me. Testing my strength and having me fight with other subjects there. He also had me...he tested my ability. he would have me touch random people and measure the accuracy of my visions and what made them stronger. When they found out that the weaker I was the faster I would fall into visions, they stopped feeding me," I told him. Pein nodded.

"Do you have a mark anywhere on your body?" he asked me. I was confused.

"Not that I recall, why?"

"No reason," Pein responded, almost a little to quickly.

"Itachi, take her back to the kitchen for dinner," he ordered. The raven haired man nodded and gestured for me to follow him. I did, though a little hesitantly. What did he mean by mark?

"Do you know what he was talking about?" I asked Itachi. He ignored me and before I could stop myself, I reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. He turned towards me. His eyes had changed to the creepy sharingan coloring. I scoffed.

"You don't scare me, I know you're not very violent, at least not as violent as the others. I can sense your emotions in the visions, you know," I reminded him. He blinked and his eyes were back to normal as he stared at me.

"Quiet," he commanded. I smirked and released his arm. I felt a little better knowing I had something to hold against him, it made me feel like I had some power here.

"So, what was he talking about?" I asked, returning to the original subject.

"He was talking about something called the curse mark. Orochimaru usually marks his subjects, tying them to him."

"What would have happened if he would have marked me?" I asked him. He gave me a level stare.

"We would have had to kill you before you lost control and caused problems," he said with no emotion in his tone. I gulped. I guess I was lucky then, not that it was going to help me in the long wrong. They were still supposed to kill me.

"Well then," I muttered as we continued down the hall.

Nothing eventful really happened during dinner, Tobi was a clingy idiot, Hidan was a pig, and Sasori still wasn't acknowledging my existence. In other words, everything was completely normal. I hated to admit it, but the more time I spent with all of them the more I felt comfortable. I was starting to drop my guard, something that I really shouldn't do, but I couldn't help it.

They may have all been villains, but they were fun villains.

Jeez, listen to me, I was getting close to people who could kill me. Someone needed to slap some sense into me or something, I definitely needed it.


	15. Chapter 15: Training

**A/N: Alright so...here we go, new chapter! Right now, we're kind of in filler mode, but it won't last much longer. I just have to establish some things before we continue. Now here we go, new chapter! Please review!**

**Chapter 15: Training...**

"You're early," Konan said as she walked into the kitchen. Because the training grounds were outside of the hideout, I wasn't allowed to go on my own. I had been so excited to start learning more about being a ninja that I had actually been waited for Konan an hour before I was supposed to.

"Yep," I told her. Her amber eyes watched me closely. I think she was still afraid of me touching her and learning more about her past. She gestured for me to follow her and I complied.

She led me through all of the twists and turns of the tunnel until we finally came to the opening by the waterfall. I watched as Konan used her chakra to lift the waterfall and step out onto the running water. I followed suit, glad that I had learned at least this trick. I followed her to the shore and then into the woods. We walked for a total of ten minutes before we came upon a large clearing. She continued walked until she reached the middle, then she stopped and turned.

Without any warning, she moved like lightning and two paper shurikens were flying towards me. Making a small sound of surprise, I dodged them, but a moment later two more came flying at me. I moved, but not quick enough, one of them skimmed the side of my cheek, making me flinch. I reached up a hand and touched my cheek. I was bleeding.

"You're relentless," I said, smirking at her. She didn't return the smirk, just pulled out three more shuriken. Cursing, I moved to dodge them again, trying to get closer to her.

"Your enemy will not give you time to recover, you must be faster and retaliate, you cannot dodge forever," Konan told me, throwing more at me. I dodged, trying to perform the hand signs necessary for my jutsu.

"Demonic Ice Mirrors!" I muttered. In an instant, Konan was surrounded. She looked around, her face calm.

"So you are a member of the Yuki clan," I heard her mutter. I jumped into the mirror in front of her and watched her eyes scan all of the reflections. i was still weak from being with Orochimaru and this technique took a lot of chakra, I needed to get this over with. If she wanted retaliation, she would get it.

I reached into my pack and pulled out my senbon, I didn't want to kill her, I just wanted to show her that I knew something. Moving faster than the eye could follow, I jumped from mirror to mirror, throwing the senbon, I hit her, but I made sure not to hit anything vital. Once I stopped, she smiled, even though there were over fifty needles in her body.

"You are going to have to come at me with the intent to kill me if you want to learn anything," she told me with a small smile. I sighed. I didn't want to do this. I jumped into the mirror in the top, right above her head and pulled out a kunai. I hesitated for only a moment and then threw it. It hit it's mark and then her entire body became paper.

A substitution jutsu...then...

I broke the jutsu and looked around me. Konan was leaning against a nearby tree, watching me.

"You...you wer testing me," I said, realizing the point of what she had done. She graced me with a small smile and moved towards me.

"You are strong, but you lack a killing instinct. If you don't kill your opponent as soon as possible, they will kill you. Remember that," she told me. I nodded. My mother had told me the same, but to be honest, I didn't like the idea of taking someone's life.

"Now, you may have mastered your ice release, but you lack skill in evasion. You are not quick enough and I haven't once seen you use taijutsu. You must be strong in body and in mind. You may be skilled in ninjutsu, but you need work in genjutsu and taijutsu," she told me. I nodded. My mother never taught me much genjutsu or taijutsu, so it came as no surprise that I wasn't good at it.

"So when do we start?" I asked her, eager to learn more.

"I will not be teaching you either. Hidan has more skill in taijutsu and you can practice striking a killing blow, since he won't die. As for genjutsu, there is only one person who can teach you." Oh no...

"Itachi," she called. Her voice disturbed the birds and I watched as they flew up into the sky. They were ravens. I lowered my eyes and resisted the urge to jump back in surprise. Itachi was there, in front of me.

"I will leave you to him," Konan told me she then performed a few hand signs and great wings of paper appeared on her back and then she was gone.. I sighed. Great, I was stuck, alone, with the one Akatsuki member who confused me the most.

"So...where do we start?" I asked him. He stared at me, his dark eyes impassive.

"Attack me," he ordered. I shrugged and complied. I pulled two kunai from my back and aimed right for his head and chest. I waited for him to dodge as they sailed toward their target, but he didn't move and they...they hit. I waited, wondering if he had performed a substitution jutsu, but nothing happened and I watched at he bled. Nothing was happening, he looked like he was...dead. He took a staggering step forward and then fell to the ground...dead.

"No," I whispered. I moved forward and knelt down next to him. He was really and truly dead, I had killed him. I wasn't sure why, but my eyes welled up with tears. What was going to happen now? Surely they would think I betrayed them. They would kill me.

This was when I was going to die.

"The power of genjutsu." What? I flipped around, my eyes meeting Itachi's. I looked back on the ground where his body had just lay, but there was nothing there anymore.

"You can trick your opponent into seeing things that aren't really there," he continued. I looked back at him and wiped the tears from my face.

"You tricked me!" I said. He shook his head.

"I demonstrated the power of genjustu," he told me. I listened as he told me more about it, it's basics, how to break a genjutsu, everything, though I was still mad at him for tricking me like that.

By the time the sun was setting I was able to do more advance genjutsu then I had before, something I was quite proud of, though I was no where near Itachi's level. I followed close behind him as he led me back to the hideout. My mind kept returning to when my kunai had hit him. It had seemed so real and I was...I was scared, but not of being killed. I was scared that I had actually killed him.

**A/N: I'm sorry this chapter is a little short, I hope you all enjoyed it and please review!**


	16. Chapter 16: Taijutsu with Hidan

**A/N: A huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I seriously appreciate it and you guys are awesome! Anywho, this chapter is probably going to be a little silly, just to shake things up, but here soon the story is going to be kicked into high gear! Sorry if I'm a little weird right now. Hanging out with my friends make me a little crazy and we just saw Warm Bodies, good movie, really funny.**

**Chapter 16: Taijutsu with Hidan...Yay...**

After I got back with Itachi, we all ate dinner in what considered to be peace. They seemed a little more relaxed around me, but I could tell they were still trying to avoid me, not that I blamed them. After dinner I went back to my room and slept better than I had in days. It was probably because of all the training. The only problem was when I woke up the next day, it was time to train with Hidan.

Yay.

I got dressed quickly and moved into the kitchen. The hideout was quiet, the night before Sasori and Deidara were sent out on another mission and Kisame was patrolling the outside of the hideout and the rest hadn't woken up yet. I grabbed a quick breakfast and then waited for Hidan...and then I waited...and waited...and waited.

The damn idiot was late. I groaned and hopped up on the counter. At least Konan was on time and I imagined Itachi would be pretty punctual as well, but of course Hidan was late. I should have guessed and slept in a little longer. A sudden noise caught my attention and I jumped off the counter, praying it was Hidan. It wasn't, it was Kakuzu. Again, I groaned. The old man looked at me.

"Aren't you supposed to be training with Hidan?" he asked me in his deep voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, he was supposed to meet me here this morning," I told him, more than a little annoyed. Kakuzu gave me, what I'm assuming, is a confused look.

"He's at the training grounds, waiting for you," he told me. For a moment I just stood there, trying to process what he had just told me, then I exploded.

"THAT STUPID SON OF A BITCH!" I snapped. Kakuzu didn't even react, he just stood there, sipping coffee. Fueled by my anger, I moved through the halls, when I saw Hidan I was going to test that theory about him being immortal. Maybe if I ripped out his heart and crushed it he would die. The thought tempted me.

I exited the hideout and made my way to the training grounds. Lucky, I remembered the way to the site and within a couple minutes I had made it. I felt my eye start twitching as I stared at the back of Hidan's head, something it did when I was really, really pissed. He was muttering something about bitches being late. I felt my face flush in anger. I was going to kick his ass!

"You stupid jerk!" I snarled. Not really thinking about what I was doing, I launched forward and jumped on his back. Before I could even do anything to the jerk, he grabbed my shoulders, causing my vision to fade, and flipped me. All of the air rushed out of me in one 'whoosh' and for a moment my vision was a little blurry.

"What was that for you little bitch!" he snapped. I rolled over and glared at him.

"Because you were supposed to meet me in the kitchen not here!" I growled. He rolled his violet eyes at me, making me not like him even more. I could already tell I was going to hate training with him.

"Whatever bitch, I wouldn't even be here is fucking Konan hadn't threatened to cut it off," he muttered. I was confused.

"Cut what off?" I asked.

"My fucking dick! What else?" My face flushed, this time in embarrassment. Contrary to some of the opinions of the people in my old village, I was actually pretty innocent. I've ever had a boyfriend, or even kissed a guy, not that I wanted to. From everything that I'd seen in visions of people's lives, love always ended up hurting you

"Whatever, can we just start training? I want to get this over with.," I said, muttering the last part. He threw something at me and I instinctively caught it. I raised an eyebrow.

"Gloves?" I asked. He glared at me.

"It's so you can't fucking touch me, bitch," he said. I shrugged, he had a point, my gloves didn't cover my whole hand and needless to say, I really didn't want to touch him again. They first time was bad enough. I pulled the gloves he had given me over my gloves and flexed my fingers, they fit pretty well. I then turned to face Hidan. I wondered how he was going to train me. Both Konan and Itachi had just thrown me into it, attacking me with (almost) everything they had.

"So...how are you going to do this?" I asked him. He smirked at me, making me want to wring his pale neck, not that it would kill him, but it's the thought that counts, right?

He answered my question by doing exactly what I thought he would do. He just freaking attacked me, kicking out, trying to get me in the head. I ducked and aimed a punch at his gut, but he moved, avoiding me by inches. He aimed a punch at me, swinging a fist at my solar plexus. I blocked him, flinched at the feel of his fist hitting my forearm.

We sparred nonstop for hours, me not landing any punches and him, bruising almost every part of my body. I did notice, however, that he avoided any inch of bare skin on my body, I guess he had secrets he didn't want me knowing. Not that I wanted to know them. After what I saw the first time, I never wanted to touch him again. Though I could say that about a lot of people.

For a moment I let my guard down and he hit me, hard, in the stomach. I felt all of the air rush out of my body in one big 'whoosh' and I collapsed. It took me a moment to regain my ability to breathe and then I was gasping for air.

"You ass," I hissed. He smirked at me.

"Serves you right you little bitch," he mocked. God, I wish I could punch him, but stupid zealot was too fast. He then looked up at the sun, which was setting against the sky.

"I'm going back. You can fucking help yourself, little bitch." You know, I was really starting to hate that nickname. I waited for him to disappear into the trees before I struggled to sit up. I was sore all over, I didn't even know if I could make it back to the hideout without passing out.

"Do you need any help?" I heard a familiar voice ask me. I looked up and then sighed. Of course. It was Itachi.

"No," I lied. I tried to stand, but my legs were shaking and I wasn't able to hold up my own weight. I cursed. Itachi didn't wait for me to say anything else, he just scooped me up, just like he had when he found me at Orochimaru's.

"Hey!" I protested, but he ignored me. I kept protesting but eventually I fell silent, realizing that he wasn't going to just leave me out there. For a moment I pretended that I didn't know anything about my own death and that Itachi was just a normal guy and I relaxed in his arms.

If only my life was that simple.


	17. Chapter 17: Time

**A/N: Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything, I've just been really busy and haven't really had time, but now I'm a little more free. I hope everyone likes this chapter, I'm finally getting back on track with the story so things are going to be happening, but first, one last filler chapter. =)**

**Chapter 17: Time**

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I asked Hidan, sitting on his back. His head was on the ground a little bit aways from me, spewing all sorts of curse words and foul language. He couldn't bring me down though, we had been trainging for almost a month and for the first time I managed to kick his ass...well more like kick his head off his shoulders.

After his last mission, someone cut his head off and Kakuzu had to stitch back on. Because he hadn't really had time to heal it wasn't that hard to kick his head off, winning me my first victory against him. I smiled at him as he glared at me from across the field.

"Will you just fucking get that old fucking miser!" he snapped at me. I shrugged.

"I don't know, I'm feeling kind of tired. Maybe if you asked politely I'd be more inclined to go get him," I suggested, with a smirk. He growled at me and let out another string of curse words. I shook my head.

"Ah, ah, ah, that's not being polite now is it?" I asked him. He grit his teeth.

"Will you go get the fucking miser...please?" he asked me through clenched teeth. I smiled.

"See? Was that so hard? I'll be right back," I told him, heading off in the direction of the hideout. It had been around a month since I had been rescued from Orochimaru's and have started training with Itachi and Hidan. I could already feel myself getting stronger and more confident in my ability to handle anything that came at me.

I hadn't been allowed to go on anymore missions until Konan deemed me strong enough to assist her, so I had been spending my days with the Akatsuki, helping Konan cook, teasing Deidara, watching Sasori make puppets, and avoiding Tobi. I was finally feeling like I had some semblance of normality in my life now.

"Hey Amaya, where's Hidan?" Deidara asked me, his visible eye searching for the masochist. I smiled.

"Let's just say he's feeling a little scatter-brained at the moment," I told him. He smirked at me, getting my joke.

"If you're looking for Kakuzu, he should be in his room," he told me. I nodded and entered the hideout. I knew I was letting my guard down more than I should, but I was starting to think that if they were going to kill me, they would have done it by now so I didn't have much to worry about. I figured as long as I didn't do anything stupid. I would be safe with them.

"Finished raining already?" a familiar voice said from behind me. I turned and felt my lips turn up in a reluctant smile. Itachi was finally back. Shortly after he had carried me back from my first training session with Hidan he and Kisame were sent out on a mission and had been gone until now.

"Yep, he sent me to get Kakuzu," I told him. For a moment I thought I saw amusement flicker in his eyes, but then they returned to their usual emotionless state.

"Konan told me how you've been doing," he told me. Since he was gone, Konan took over training me in genjutsu. She wasn't as good as Itachi, but she had been teaching me a lot. I still didn't stand a chance against Itachi though.

"And?" I prompted.

"I'll be taking over your training," he told me. I tried to hide my smile. That mean that he wasn't going to be going on another mission anytime soon.

I hated that I had missed him while he was gone, but every day I had searched for his dark eyes watching me from some dark corner only to be disappointed. It might have been because out of all of them he had been the one who seemed the least...well evil. He didn't want to kill his family, but it was his mission and he had to fulfill his mission, whether he liked it or not.

I guess you could say I didn't want to acknowledge the other reason why I might have missed him.

"Well, I'd better get Kakuzu before Hidan has a fit," I told him, heading to Kakuzu's room. I felt his eyes watching me and I pretended I didn't notice.

"Kakuzu!" I called, pounding on the door. It opened slowly and for a moment I felt dwarfed compared to his height, but then I shook it off.

"Hidan needs you to stitch his head back on," I told him. He shook his head and pushed past me. I decided not to follow him, not wanting to listen to Hidan's constant complaining and cursing. Instead I headed to Sasori's room.

After he got over his anger at me, we started talking more. I was actually surprised to find that he didn't mind me hanging on. I wasn't sure if I could call him a friend, but he was the closest thing I had to one in the organization. I knocked softly on the door and he opened it, his brown eyes finding mine. He didn't say anything, he just opened the door wider so I could come in.

"I thought you were training?" he asked as I flopped on his unused bed. I wasn't really sur why he had one, considering he never used it.

"I was, but it had to be cut short when I knocked Hidan's head off and had to get Kakuzu," I told him. He shook his head, but I could tell he was amused.

"Did you hear the announcement yet?" he asked me. I shook my head, confused.

"We're leaving this hideout and seperating. We are about to come out into the open more and search for the jinchuriki. Leader-sama and Konan are heading back to Ame to establish themselves there while the rest of us are splitting off into groups of two," he told me. For a moment I was worried.

"Who am I going with? I thought I'd be partnered with Konan?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"I don't know, but I know that Konan isn't going to be out on the field." I sighed. I didn't want to end up cooped up with Nagato and Konan in Ame, I would rather be out with Sasori or Itachi.

"You might not have a choice. You might not have the training to be out looking for the jinchuriki, not to mention defend yourself. Orochimaru still wants to get you back," he reminded me. I sighed. I had really screwed up with that one, but there was no going back now.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Sasori sighed, muttering something about 'all these disturbances', before crossing the room to open the door.

It was Konan.

"Leader wants to see Amaya," she said, her amber eyes finding mine. Sighing I stood up, I guess I was about to find out what I who I would be going with.


	18. Chapter 18: Leaving Again

**A/N: Ugh, I just realized how long it's been since I've updated. I'm so behind. Oh well, at least I'm posting now. I can't for spring break. I'm going to dedicate the entire week to writing, not just on fanfiction though. I have original works too. Now, here we go!**

**Chapter 18: Leaving Again**

"You wanted to see me?" I asked Nagato as the door closed behind me. The whole room was dark and all I could see was his strange eyes staring at me in the darkness. I tried my best to look like I wasn't nervous, but inside my heart was pounding.

"Yes, as you've heard Konan is coming with me to Ame and therefore won't be on the field so I've asked you here to tell you who you will be going with." I nodded in acknowledgement. All I could think was please, please, please, don't put me with Hidan and Kakuzu. I'm pretty sure I would go crazy if I had to spend more than one moment with him.

"After some thought I feel as though your abilities would be best placed with Kisame and Itachi. Since Kisame uses water style it should aid your kekkai genkai," he told me. I breathed a sigh of relief. Now those two I could stand and out of all of the Akatsuki members I felt the safest with Itachi.

"Thank you," I told him with a polite bow. He nodded and gestured for me to leave the room. Once I wa out the door I started to move faster. If I was going to be with Itachi and Kisame I figured I should find them as soon as I could.

To be honest I was actually kind of excited to be back out on the field. This would be the first time I've been allowed to leave since the disaster with Sasori and Deidara. I wasn't sure when, but I had started to want to impress this group. Though it could have just been my stubborn will to survive.

Yeah, I think I like that better.

"Hey, Sharky!" I called spotting the tall man moving through the tunnels. He turned and smirked at me.

"I heard," he told me. I cocked my head to the side, how could he have already heard that I was going with them? Then I shrugged. What the hell does it matter anyway? It's not like it really changed anything.

"So where are we going?" I asked him, crossing my arms.

"We're to find one of the jinchuriki." I felt a shiver go up my spine as I turned. I hated that he was able to sneak up on me so easily.

"Which one?" I asked Itachi. His dark eyes moved to me, but he didn't say anything. I got the sense that he was upset about something, but I wasn't really sure what. For a moment I felt the urge to reach out and try and see if I could see what was wrong by touching him, but then I pulled back.

Maybe before my time with Orochimaru I would have done it, but not now. I was too afraid.

"Is something wrong?" Itachi asked me. I shook my head.

"No, I just kind of spaced out," I told him.

"Good. We will be going after the seven tailed jinchuriki," he told me, moving to the exit of the tunnel. Kisame looked at me.

"Looks like someone's in a bad mood," he muttered. So it wasn't just me who noticed. Well that made feel slightly better.

We both followed after Itachi, but I was trying to think of a way to figure out what was wrong without touching him. Huh, I guess this was what it was like for normal people. You know now that I think about it, I'm not so sure I like it. Not that I liked my powers it's just easier than sitting here dwelling on it.

"Amaya? What's up with the snow fairy?" Kisame asked. I swatted at him, feeling annoyed.

"Don't call me a snow fairy," I growled. He smirked.

"Well, then don't call me sharky." I rolled my eyes.

"Please, you actually are a shark, I'm just an Ice user, not a fairy," I reasoned. Kisame just scoffed.

"You're small enough to be fairy," he muttered. I scowled.

"I am not a fairy!"

"Kisame," Itachi said suddenly. We both looked at him. It seemed like his tension had eased a bit. I wondered if it was because of our...um...banter.

"Hm?"

"Let's go," he said starting to walk again. I sighed. If only my power included reading minds. Now that would be useful. Kisame rolled his eyes, but followed after him. I hesitated for only a moment. This would be my second mission and this time I would be with Itachi. I wasn't sure why that made me feel so nervous, but I was also excited.

This was going to be interesting. I could tell.

**A/N: Ah! Short chapter! I am so sorry it's so short, but I'm trying to save some stuff for the next chapter! I'm not so sure how much longer this story will be. It might go up to 30 chapters at the most, but I don't really know. Anyway, I'm really sorry! Please don't hate me!**


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